


The Citadel

by GarrusVakarian2153



Category: Mass Effect, shakarian - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen, The Citadel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 02:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 62,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GarrusVakarian2153/pseuds/GarrusVakarian2153
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a couple weeks of mandatory vacation -ordered by their superiors- Commander Shepard finally plans to follow through with visiting the now heavily damaged citadel and visit all the areas that were important to her. Including where it all ended.</p><p>But with not a single keeper corpse on the citadel, nor a live one, and questions about how Shepard even got off the citadel still lingering, this unwanted trip will likely stir some heart strings, and maybe even provide some clarity on the questions that still linger with the dead station. THIS WORK HAS BEEN UPDATED TO CORRECT ERRORS AND IMROVE QUALITY</p><p>Garrus POV</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Morning of

**Author's Note:**

> this is a continuation of my previous works (which you can find on tumblr Garrusvakarian2153) in a broader storyline. this is also my biggest story to date. EDI Re-Activation (my first multi-chapter story) was just me testing the waters of putting good ideas in my head onto paper (so to speak) and turning them into good stories. and this is just an extension of seeing how far I can take an idea and how broad and 'in-depth' I can make a story based off a few key concepts/ideas that I thought up.
> 
> comments and review, and letting me know what you like, and pointing out errors all all appreciated. I don't expect this to be flawless and im sure to miss something before posting this (like writing dextro-amino friendly instead of dextro-levo friendly)
> 
> with your help I'll hopefully be able to fine tune my skills and make even better higher quality stories in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to read this, and to read my stories. hope you enjoy XD

Morning.

I woke up just as earth's sun began to push its ways through the tree’s and in through the windows of the house Shepard and I were given. I sat up and swung my legs off the bed. My neck felt a little stiff so I grabbed the ends of my crest and started pulling at it to the side until that familiar cracking noise ran down my neck, then same the other way. 

 _Damn I feel old..._  

I stretched out and yawned, shaking away the grogginess of weeks of relaxation. Then I turned to check on Shepard, who was still sleeping. She was curled up and somehow managed to throw all the blankets off the bed in her sleep. Not that I never needed them, and Shepard never complained about the cold. Especially since it didn’t drop below 15 degrees on this island. Despite that, Shepard always did love wrapping herself in them. She had that familiar look on her face, a grimace of sorts that told of an unpleasant dream. Despite the war being over for over a year now, there were still nights where she was restless.

I always seem to wake up first, guess I'm used to longer days of Palaven or just don’t need as much sleep. I stood up and walked over to my pair of discarded pants and put those on. My shirt was... somewhere.

 _I'll find it later_. 

Then I walked over to the fridge, took out some food and Caffeine, then made some coffee for Shepard and left it on the warming plate and stepped outside. I took a seat on the chair out on the house’s balcony and watched Earths alien sun rise up like it's own wake up routine. Almost like a morning on Palaven I thought. I ate my breakfast casually thinking over a couple things. Like how long it’s been since I’ve been home, or seen my family. Even during my month and a half on Palaven –soon as the relays were functional enough to get me there, along with the rest of the surviving Turian forces-- I never got the chance to go back to the area of the city where I was born. Closest I got was a view from miles up on the way in on a shuttle. Smouldering with only a couple fires left burning with that solemn orange glow of everything you grew up with being turned to ash. I thought I could almost make out some buildings that were landmarks of the city, though obviously severely damaged and barely standing. You could see other areas where there was nothing, barren craters in the city that spanned a couple miles where in the centre still lay a half melted reaper corpse. 

 _The Miracle on Palaven_ , I thought.

Can’t stand to think how there were still thousands of people around there indoctrinated or not when they set off those nukes.

During my time on Palaven and I wasn’t even able to recognize half of what I saw. Massive indoctrinated quarantine camps. Mass graves. Overcrowded makeshift hospitals and more sorrow than I care to remember. There were a couple buildings around the area I worked in that gave me a true sense of how bad it was, I remembered them, strong military bunkers all reinforced and with enough fire power in them to make a krogan whimper. I used to marvel at these strictly defensive and offensive buildings guarding the perimeters of our cities and used to think nothing could match them. Indestructible.

And now it seemed as if they were all made out of simple trees. It was bad everywhere, not just on Palaven. All the Galaxy looks this way, all looks beaten and bruised. It will take time, but we’ll have this place just as it was.

Looking around me now there wasn't much damage here, perhaps why they chose this place for Shepard to get away. There was some historical 200 year old navy harbour from one of the humans world wars a few miles away. A single reaper stopped by to turn it to scrap. Other than that the whole of this Island was relatively untouched by the war.

After I finished my meal, I messed around my omni-tool for a bit, listened to some music, and re-read the conversations I had with my sister. It seems if timing works out she’ll arrive in the Sol system on our last day of touring The Citadel. Which is good timing, I’m sure Shepard could use something like meeting my sister after were done sifting through that empty husk of a space station. Something neither of us are particularly looking forward to, but something Shepard says she has to do to “put those ghosts to bed” she said. 

_Hmm... I’m sure Sol and Shepard will get along great, much to my own expense I’m sure._

I took in a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it out in a long sigh, sub harmonics making a low rumbling sound as I did. Shepard then walked out to join me on the balcony, cup of coffee that I made for her in her hand.

“Missing home Mr. Vakarian?” Shepard said as she stood behind me and leaned her elbows on me, reading my conversation with my sister over my shoulder. 

“Home. Hmm, not really sure where that is anymore… spent a lot of time in a lot of places... and after Palaven... the Normandy is my home for now.”

 I closed my omni-tool and turned to look at Shepard. Any evidence of whatever she was dreaming was no longer there, she seemed a little more up-beat, ready to face the day ahead. 

“Palaven is still your home, your turian remember?” she said as if I wasn’t aware “Though the Normandy does make a nice home doesn't it? Hell the Normandy is my home too, more than Earth ever will be anyways…. Still a nice view though” she said looking over to the same sunrise I was watching all morning. 

“Mmm, you weren’t born on your home world. you grew up from station to station. I'm sure you long for ships as much as I long to see the Cipritine skyline as it once was... that won't be for years now.” I said, she shrugged in agreement and we sat in silence for a moment. Then she stepped into a more amusing conversation “and despite you being from a completely different planet, you managed to end up with one of those ‘humans from earth’, ewwww. Unless that doesn’t apply to a spacer like me.” She shook her head at me with a disappointed look, imitating what i took as a shocked turian. Then she laughed at her… impression of a Turian's opinion on my romantic interests. 

“Shepard—“ I began to protest but she was already continuing with her exaggeration- 

“but on the bright side, that human is THE commander Shepard, which despite being no-where close to home in terms of accepted romantic options it still makes you the luckiest Turian—no, luckiest man in the Galaxy.” She put her hands at her hips in a quick heroic pose as if she was narrating her own vid.

Knowing I couldn’t just let her get away making me out as a hapless and lucky Turian, I countered her with “heh, well I still have the countless fan girls waiting on me if this thing falls through” I said giving her a ‘im the badass and you know you’re lucky to get a Turian like me’ mannerisms that only someone who spent a significant amount of time around me would be able to pick up on. Then our conversation turned into a less serious of who's the lucky one conversation with only one of us ending up on top. “HAH! Yea all that krogan fan mail must really be weighing you down” she finished with a long sympathetic drawl. “see? My stunning looks have shattered Krogan-Turian amnesty“ I coughed at that last part, while holding back laughter as we battled to see who could make the other crack first.

“hmm, we'll I’ve seen bigger weapons tough guy” she said, folding her arms with that unimpressed look but also noticeably holding back a huge smile

“uhuh, and not even your spectre status will get you access to those. And I'm sure you wouldn’t want to risk an inter species incident. Wouldn’t want another war on our hands” I said

“All I’d have to do is ask” she shrugged confidently “still have a stash of requests in my back room from when we killed that thresher maw for Grunt’s 'sweet 16' ” she said with a smirk like she knew she already won.

“His what??? And you kept those?!? SHEPARD! I won’t let…….. Annnd you won” I said.

I broiled for a minute before saying "No one can have you. not while im around, not even death. I'll make sure of that... so long as you'll have me of course."

“Hah, I think I’d believe you could stop that." She said with a chuckle before moving into a more exhaled tone. 

"Still not sure how any of us made it out of that last one, it was close... and I already knew I would win. all I need to do is just throw you off with a human thing you don’t know of, then make you REALLY jealous, and your sub harmonics show me all the emotion that stoic face of yours can't. I love that about you, makes kicking your butt at these conversations oh soo worth it”

“You want facial expression? don’t date a Turian” I chided, shrugging my shoulders, acting unimpressed though pride still simmering a little on the inside from losing.

Shepard sympathized me the same way I did to her when we figured out I was the better shot back on the Citadel she said “Been with you this long, I think I’m a little past the point of no return. besides...” she walked over and placed on hand on my shoulder and brought her face close to mine “I Love You Garrus Vakarian” she nuzzled her nose to mine, then backed up a bit, smiled and added “don’t ever think that’s gonna change you oversized parakeet”

I scrunched my face at her and glared lovingly “you know I don’t like that comparison and that there is no resemblance. Aside from that I have no intention of ending this thing either…. I-…. Love you too”

_damn it, real smooth._

The thought of the Citadel flashed my mind again. We were heading to where I almost lost her. Holding back a sudden flashback of despair I quickly said “I… well I’m glad you’re able to follow orders Shepard even from subordinates like myself.”

“Hmm well it’s not like I would let you get away with telling me you love me just once now would I?” she continued to smile at me, watching me. “And that  _hum_  as you say love. Hmm, yea definitely worth coming back from the dead again to hear.”

“All those romantic... skills... I guess” I said.

“Yea… and now where heading back to the end. Might as well get it over with huh?” she said, looking up to the sky.

“No,” I said thinking even further back to when I was nothing but a hot head C-SEC officer meeting her for the first time. “we're heading back to the beginning.”

 


	2. The Pick-Up

“That _really_ necessary?” Shepard asked as I pulled out my heavy armour from the closet I was forced to leave it in when we arrived on this wonderful island. There was little around our little getaway to remind you of what was still out there, and Shepard said she wouldn’t let me stay if I were to keep the armour on. 

Civvie clothing it was.

“That really need answering?” I asked her right back, giving her a quick look of ‘I’m sure you already know it’s absolutely necessary Shepard’ a drop of my right mandible along with a raise of my left brow plate and a sight tilt of the head.

She rolled her eyes a little then gave in “fine, when you start whining about how you can’t combat roll in armour don’t be whining at me”

“Rolling requires ducking Shepard, and I don’t know how to do that –have the scars to prove it- besides, while your busy rolling around in your tactical cloak, I’ll be shooting the bad guys.” I said.

"Bad guys? we're heading to a ghost town, you only want the armour cause you miss it." she said, I threw my hands in a half careless-half casual manner and replied "Too bad there won't be anything to shoot"

Shepard shook her head and looked down her banter smile fading away and I could tell she was looking as forward to this trip as I was. I’d rather let James recalibrate the Normandy’s systems then do this; but it’s something that Shepard feels she needs to do, and I plan on being with her every step of the way.

I sighed and looked at her as if that would give me any more insight onto how she was doing than what my visor was already telling me. 

 _Hey, the smart thing would be to go remind her she’s not alone._ I thought to myself.

I walked behind her, half dressed in my armour and put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, Shepard. There’s no bullets this time…. Or… rockets” she turned and gave me a half smile “so, that means I can guarantee that I will be with you this entire trip. and I’ll be there after, may as well get this over with together”

“Mmm, I do kind of miss that comfy 'huggy' feel of wearing armour.” She said, reverting back to the beginning of the conversation.

“yeeahhhh, and you can just think it’s--err… nevermind” I stopped myself before I said something stupid again but of course Shepard knew where I was going with it anyways 

“and just think it’s you hugging me the whole way. Hah that’s a good one” she laughed and smiled at me the way she does whenever I manage to cheer her up. 

_–good job Vakarian, keeping those cheering-up skills sharp, now if only you were good at those romant-_

Satisfied, and with Shepard a little less solemn I returned to putting on my armour, still with the dents on the front from EDI a few weeks back. I rubbed my hands over them before turning it over and putting it on. That same old comfort as the seals clamped shut and the internal padding and gel layer presses firmly over your body. That hum you can feel as the internal computers turn on and all the lights flicker to life.

And the flow of new information as my visor receives vitals and other information from my suit. Almost expected a ‘welcome home Garrus, we missed you’ to scroll across from the damn thing. Everything in order I rolled my shoulders and turned my head each way, 

* Crack *  _damn, you’re getting old._

Then I just sat and watched as Shepard lazily rifled through her messy side of the closet and pulled out her armour. One of her older pairs from back in the Cerberus days she had kept in her closet on the Normandy along with all the other armour she bought, but never wore.

She had bought some really high end stuff before Thessia, massive shield, backup and redundant generators, reflective armour with advanced gel layer for maximum energy dispersal, limited edition medical computer with extra Medi-gel reserves for maximum efficiency, 'all the bells and hollers' I think is what humans say.

I spent around 5-6 hours looking through the specs of her new armour, comparing it with what she already had, and what I could possibly get my hands on to improve it, and when satisfied that there was nothing better on the market, I tinkered with the computing system to add 34% to her shields, added a remote vitals tracker to her medical computer to input directly to my visor with a 4 mile range and even managed to add a personal radio sync in case she was interested in getting into some actual music,  _-and not the regular tracks she keeps in her quarters-_ while killing reapers.

I Like to think it accomplished something because there was literally nothing left of the armour when we picked her up back on earth. Some half melted outer pieces, gel layer fried with cooked medi-gel into her wounds which were barely sealed, burns everywhere like she decided to just jump into one of the burning barrels on omega. From how it looked when she left me on the Normandy at the Beam to how It looked when I saw her again on earth 3 days later; I just shudder to think what would have happened if she would of been wearing anything less.

* * *

After Shepard finished suiting up, she placed her radio-piece in her ear and said “Normandy, this is Shepard, Garrus is done prettying himself up for pick-up, what’s your ETA?”

“Really Shepard?” I gave her an unamused look, last thing I needed was for joker to have more banter to use against me at will, ‘stick-up-my-ass-Vakarian’ and “The commanders”.... nah, I don't need you guys knowing that one. Shepard ignored my protest and just sat, waiting for a reply, though I’m pretty sure I saw a small smirk escape from her.

Another moment and Joker Crackled on, followed by EDI, who was sounding more herself these days

“Oh? you too love birds finally deciding to come out of retirement? We're just finished re-entry checks, will be over Hawaii in a few minutes.”

“Was that a pun Jeff? Due to Garrus resembling some of the avian creatures of Earth?” EDI asked “and I apologize for the delay, the crew insists that my own pre-flight checks are insufficient, to which I insist on the fact that I can take care of myself.”

Shepard turned at me and smiled waiting for my reaction to yet another bird reference which  _'I love soo much'_

_I really don't._

I just shrugged my shoulders at her, as if I couldn’t really give a damn.

“Yes EDI, PUN oh so very much intended, you get that Garrus? And EDI you’re not gonna go through a young and rebellious phase are you? Don’t want to feel like my dad. Cause, you know, that would be weird, and you totally didn't lock the forward shielding before initiating descent, so uhh, I would of gone blind.” Joker said, speaking rather rapidly.

Shepard and I didn’t say anything, instead EDI said “As weird as dating an AI?... That’s connected to your ship? That IS your ship? Hmm, maybe I am feeling a little rebellious. I AM the Normandy, and you’re always riding aboard it. Thought it was time I get to ride YOU.”

“OHHHKAY EDI, you can stop right there!!” joker exclaimed over the comms to which I said “Just so you know joker, I can hear EVERY word”

“dammit, I—just give me a minute, we’ll be over” with that, the radio cut out and Shepard and I both sat laughing to ourselves.

Then Shepard added “you know EDI, it’s not just joker who rides aboard the Normandy, now I will probably feel a little dirty stepping aboard her now” 

_don’t care how dirty I feel, joker is never living this moment down._

“Careful Shepard, wouldn’t want to make Mr. Moreau jealous”. Joining in the verbal bully circle.

“oh this so isn’t happening right before we all get shoved onto the same ship for the next 8 months” joker whined, I could picture seeing him shaking his head in his hands.

Then the three of us replied to him all at once “oh it so is”.

Within a few minutes the Normandy came screaming overhead, Joker didn’t even bother dropping down the shuttle, rather he brought it over to the cliff near the house and opened the Cargo bay door. With a short march out the front door each with a pack of things we brought from the Normandy and a couple mementos from our time on this island we jogged over to the cliff and jumped the meter wide gap between the Normandy, land, and a 200 foot drop into the ocean below, with the two of us back on board we took off back out into space. Back out into everything we left behind.

Holiday is over. Time to get back to healing the scars of the Galaxy, starting with the heart of it.

 


	3. Broken Heart of the Galaxy

_Military life not for you? Feel like your not making enough of a difference? Want to do something more fulfilling? Finished your M.T.D and looking for something better? Military regulations slowing you down? Join C-SEC, The largest non-military force in the Galaxy! Make your Family name proud and serve with thousands of other proud officers from all over. Sign up TODAY! – C-SEC Recruitment poster_

Ever seen a building fall?

Something you always thought would stay the same, the normalcy of its pristine presence taken for granted. Something so remarkable it’s sheer presence would shake the hardest of turians. I remember feeling a little overwhelmed first time my father brought me to the Citadel when I was 13. Humans had only just gotten their Embassy, but I remember my dad explaining how it didn’t really mean much at the time.

“This is where you work dad?” I remember asking, young foolish Turian still with a lot to learn. So damn long ago, like another life.

“This is the Citadel Garrus, the greatest example of diplomacy and cooperation between every species in the galaxy. Even ones like the Batarians… we even let humans have an embassy on here now, not that it really means much when you look at the bigger picture; but spend enough time here and you realize despite how different these… aliens are, the galaxy can be a very accepting place.”

“So… you help create the peace?” I asked, 

“No, I help keep the peace. Rules create order, without order the constant fight to be on top would be chaos. By upholding the rules, you keep order, and through it peace. It’s a constant war between those who follow the rules, and those who seek to break them. I show those who choose the latter the errors of their ways”

“Isn’t hard to stop those not playing by the rules when you have to follow them yourself? Wouldn’t it be easier to just let people like spectres stop those who create chaos?” even then I could see how rules would slow someone down while their target danced around them. Something that I didn’t take long to notice once I actually started working with C-SEC.

“Spectres are no better than those breaking the rules, because they have none. Without rules or morals to keep yourself grounded you create more of a mess than you clean up. One of these days one of those spectres are going to kill hundreds of civilians just to stop one individual not following the rules. How does that make a spectre any better than the person he just killed?”

I was always a little intimidated by my father whenever he went into one of his lessons, but he taught me that I must be my own person and never 'hide in a mask' - an old turian saying-. So I asked “so… if the rules said you had to answer to a Human, would you? Would you follow the orders that human gave you?”

He looked down at me, piercing me with a stare that could silence you, but also with a look of someone who was proud to be challenged with such moral questions by their son.

“Luckily, that will never happen in my lifetime. But, if the rules said that I am to take orders from a Human, I would put my faith that those rules are there for a reason. And I would follow those orders, without question.”

“so….. you think someday I might be working with a Human?” I asked, sticking out my tongue a bit at the idea but also not entirely sure how to feel about it, trying to digest all my father was saying as if he were to quiz me on it later. He let out a brief grin and about as close to a laugh as I would ever hear for years and he said “by the time you take my place here on the citadel you probably won’t be able to avoid it.”

 

 

#

 

“Citadel in sight Commander, we'll be docking with it in a few minutes… or what’s left of it” joker announced through the comms as Shepard and I were heading down into the cargo bay to prep our weapons.

 

#

 

“Hey, you remember the good old days where we were allowed to just cart our weapons anywhere we wanted throughout the citadel?” Shepard said as we made our way through the ship.

“You thinking of reliving those days Shepard?” I asked, already having a good guess as to where she was going with it. 

“Hell yea" She said, "armor doesn’t have the same feel when you’re not carrying a black widow on your back, besides if I see a window that isn’t shattered, I’ll gladly correct that.”

“and I’ll be syncing shots from behind you for when you miss, that way you’ll never know, and won’t feel bad about it” I chided.

“Shut up Garrus, you may think you’re the better shot, but I’ve got a higher kill count” she said, defending her pride.

“That’s because all my time is spent watching your six” I said.

“Yea, I bet Garrus” she said, smiling.

“That’s not what I---“ I exclaimed, a little flustered.

 

#

 

 “Thanks joker, were just grabbing our gear, we’ll be up in a minute” Shepard replied as we finished grabbing our full set of gear for the great lack of things we will be shooting at. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a fully combat ready suit. It gives you a feeling like when you get to fire ‘the big gun’ your inner child

  _\--yes turians have an inner child--_

is screaming at how awesome it feels. We even stocked our suits full of medi-gel. You feel prepared, ready for anything, oddly the same feeling I had when we crashed on the collector base and Shepard made me leader of team two...without the obvious threat of death of course. Even brought along my new helmet –of which I haven’t taken the time, or even got a chance to test out all its features. Puts my visor to shame.—though I wasn’t planning on wearing it the entire time. It was all an excuse to find something to feel good about on this trip. Bringing all your gear is a good feeling.

Prepped and ready, Shepard and I took the elevator up to the CIC and walked up to the cockpit where joker and EDI were working. “Let’s see what we’re looking at joker” Shepard said as she walked over and hit the button to remove the shutters and give us all our first look at the Citadel. As they were opened EDI looked over and noticed our overkill-preparation and asked “you’re in full gear" she noted "it is unlikely you will encounter any resistance aboard the Citadel. I fail to find any understanding in this.”

“We're just looking for a way to have fun, times like this it’s the small things that give us a reason to smile. We both love opportunities to carry around our full gear…. It’s an organic thing” Shepard explained.

“I see, if you will permit, I would like to participate, and see if I too can share in this sense of ‘fun’.” EDI replied, turning back to the terminals she was tapping away at.

“Yea why not, go ahead and grab your gear before we head out, meet us back here” Shepard said.

“Just make sure Garrus doesn’t do something, like you know, rip her arm off again.” Joker said, insisting on always complaining whenever EDI goes ground side on missions. Even when there’s no danger on this visit.

Neither Shepard nor I responded to this, but instead we all remained silent as we all looked out the window and got a good look at the Citadel.

It reminded me of a lot of the surviving warships from the final battle with the reapers. No-one in sword or shield fleet got away from that battle without some exterior damage. I even remember hearing from an LT. on Palaven about a turian dreadnought surviving the battle even after a destroyer class reaper had latched onto the front of it, tearing through the entire front of the ship with its claws, The captain ordered they fire the main gun even though the minimum safe distance for any dreadnaught-to-target is a few miles. The shot bypassed the reapers shields since it was so close and tore the damn thing into several pieces. The shock wave obliterated the entire front armour of the ship and continued through, shattering the hull all the way to the back of the ship. Despite missing the front of the ship, it was still able to fight, and even fly. They fired another round to clear and obstruction and it was pretty much a sawed-off dreadnaught. The entire bridge got obliterated and the firing crew and engineers at the back of the ship made it out alive... with minor severe injuries. Most of the surviving crew had to be treated for various levels of internal bleeding from the pressure wave, but looking at the ship anyone would have a hard time believing any of them made it off alive. Or that the ship was still able to function.

That same level of destruction could be seen looking at the Citadel. As it hung in the loomed in the air like a shattered temple, with a seemingly unnatural tilt to it in relation to the earth. The entire scene screamed foul spirits, and boded ill will.

The two arms of Zakera ward and Tayseri ward were no longer attached to the presidium. The Citadel were being held in place by multiple ‘anchor ships’ modified super-transports with large mass effect field generators to keep larger pieces in place.

_Like the majority of the Citadel_

The wards that were still connected to the presidium had a noticeable twist to them, like the blades on a fan. Zakera and Tayseri were being held close to where they were originally attached. But were still probably a good few hundred feet from connecting to the presidium rings. There was debris everywhere. Pieces of buildings and other large chunks of metal. 

If you looked closer you could make out most of the tall buildings simply... weren’t. 

Most of everything was levelled to a certain height until about halfway down the arm. Whether from the blast, or the vast amount of debris that was being sucked into the centre just shaved everything when Shepard activated the catalyst I don’t really know.

There were also multiple holes through the wards. quarter mile wide voids clear through from one side to the other. I always thought that external shell was impenetrable, not even reapers could blast through it. The force required to do that... even EDI would have a hard time wrapping her mind around that one.

We could also make out the Citadel tower, and the Presidium ring. Though we were still miles away, you could notice something off about the tower. Like nothing had happened to it, damage wise. Even though the catalyst drew everything to its centre when it fired. Tossing Normandy sized chunks in every direction, which is likely where the holes in the wards came from. Most of the crucible appeared to have been included in that explosion of energy. But you could notice some of it was still connected to the top of the tower, and even the arms keeping it in place were intact, though very twisted and as damaged as the rest of the Citadel. Whole thing was like one of those fun houses where symmetry does not exist.

Though there was nothing funny about what we saw. Other than a couple ironwork ships and the pulsing flash of industrial welders at the edges of the inner wards, and the holes. It all just seemed like a desolate ghost town.

“Man I hope that hot tub still works” Shepard suddenly said. It was so out of place from what we were seeing joker and I let out a surprised, short laugh. “Well, I dunno, you like your hydrotherapy filled with glass? Look, there’s no windows anywhere.” Joker said, adding his usual sarcasm. 

“See? I told you Shepard, an entire wall made of glass was a bad idea. Bet that TV of yours didn’t fare any better either… damn, should have taken it with us” I said, shaking my head.

“Yea yea, we’ll get a chance to see what we can grab from the apartment when we get there, if anything.” Shepard said, ending the small talk.

“Normandy, this is Captain O’Connel of the Phoenix, lead salvage and repair ship for the Citadel. Also operating as a docking officer for the entire area, we were only told of your expected arrival this morning.”

Joker replied “Roger that Phoenix, the commander just has a few places she wants to see, and we’ll be out of your way.” Joker didn’t seem all that inclined to stick around either. The choices he had to make when Shepard activated the crucible had to be haunting him. The whole cockpit had that uncomfortable feeling going on; and I’m sure me standing right behind him didn’t help much. 

“Hey no rush, take your time, anything for the commander. There’s a docking bay we’ve been using...uhh... E23 you could use, not too far from D24. where you used to go.” The captain said. “roger that, thanks” with that, joker inverted the ship and dove towards the coordinates. It was on a building used for cargo and was crowded with other ships, likely crew for the repair of the station.

Here we go I thought as I walked down the stairs and down on the floor of the building. The whole place looked like the Citadel commons after the Cerberus coup, but with less bullet holes, and more shattered windows, and cracked or bent walls.

And who to greet us but Commander Bailey himself. Didn’t even know he was alive.

“Damn Shepard, you know how to party. Look at this place, Cerberus has nothing on you when it comes to bringing down the house. Buuut don’t worry, all the paper work doesn’t have it listed under your name as vandalism” bailey said, pulling a joke. “BAILEY! I wasn’t even sure you made it off the Citadel!” Shepard exclaimed, striding up to shake the mans hand.

“funny thing Shepard, I didn’t.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty sure there are some errors in this one grammar/spelling wise. I'll have to skim through it again when I have the time.
> 
> also, I was thinking that it was likely that there still could have been people aboard the citadel when the reapers hit, and brought it to the Sol System. I also felt that tech wise you can determine if someones on the station through bio-metrics and infrared and such. But likely the reapers would jam/EMP the bio-metrics/life signs while attacking the citadel. Or, military ships only pick up military grade bio-metrics, and use the other sensors to find anything else. And this is why no-one seems to have caught Anderson getting on-board, or they only knew Shepard made it onto the citadel because of a ground visual.
> 
> the end is sketchy on details as they just had a concept and threw i together without considering why tech wouldn't be able to see TIM or Anderson or Shepard. So working with that, basically any tech used to see life-signs is either not working, is jammed, or some other reason. and this lack of info brings the possibility that there still could have been survivors on board.


	4. Bailey's

Bailey led us down through some halls and a couple flight of stairs into what used to be a restaurant. Not one I’ve ever been to; there was garbage everywhere, like what you would expect to see after one of those Expel 10 concerts. The windows that once lined the walls of the place were all smashed, there was still glass on the ground and every step you took was a loud crunch. Anything that wasn’t held down was tossed all over the place, and on the far end of the wall there was a bar stool jutting out of a wall. The place was a damn mess, and I didn’t expect anywhere on the station to be any different.

The four of us took a seat in one of the booths after clearing the glass off the table and seats and we all sat down.

“So you never left the Citadel?” Shepard asked, soon as we sat down. 

Bailey took a deep breath and clasped his hands and set them on the table before saying “A lot of C-SEC were still on the Citadel by the time the reapers had arrived. Thanks to all the tech you recovered we had a good 3 hours notice that they were going to pay us a visit. Damn Shepard you have no idea of the chaos of people running for their ships, any ships. Orderly evacuation wasn’t what I would call it.” He leaned back against the booth, getting himself comfortable for the long explanation he knew he owed us.

“I… I don’t recall any life signs aboard The Citadel except for Shepard when she activated the crucible.” EDI said. EDI had been scanning the station the whole time, holding on to the hope of an extraction until there was too much interference to determine any lifesigns.

“I didn't expect there to be anyone left when the reapers got here. There were still a couple ships getting airborne when every damn reaper must’ve been pouring through that relay. Anyone left didn’t last long. I watched hundreds of ships just get wasted by those things... packed full of people, people I'm supposed to protect” Bailey said, shaking his head with a distant look in his eyes.

“So you were still on the Citadel, where did you go?” I asked, thinking back to all the assault protocols C-SEC had in place. Not that I can recall any Citadel abduction or Reaper invasion protocols. 

Bailey scoffed. “Hell, I was trying to tell everyone to find a weapon and dig in, but all the comms were cut when one of those things got close enough to jam us, may even also be why no one knew anyone was still on the station. I just took a couple other officers over to the illegal weapons storage facility, loaded up, and found a place to bunker down and wait out the shit storm.”

“What about the council? I know they survived, but did they make it off the station?” Shepard asked.

“The council? Hah, those bastards were already on the Destiny Ascension before the evac order was even given. Not that it meant much, it stuck around for another hour accepting as many civilian rapid transit shuttles trips as it could. Pretty sure all those people were still on that ship when It was fighting off the Reapers over Earth. Council likely took an escape pod before hitting the sol relay. Probably a good thing though. I heard that ship took quite the beating.”

“It was cut in half” I said almost before he has finished his sentence. None of us spoke for a few moments after that, thinking of all the people that must of been on board, crew and survivors.

“Still a little hard to believe anyone was still on board the station when the reapers brought it to Earth.” Shepard said shaking her head. “They sent swarms of husks to take out anyone still on the station, and despite the early warning, well you could start hearing the screams. It was all silent for a while after that, till the arms opened up with hell all around it.” He paused for a moment then added “hey and I heard you were up by the catalyst when you set it off. Hard to Believe YOU survived.”

“yea…” Shepard agreed shaking her head. “Don’t remember how I ended up back on earth. Hard to really believe I made it… hard to believe any of us did.”

Under the table I took her hand in mine and squeezed it, trying to reassure her that she was here, and everything was alright. We never really talk about any of the details of whatever happened, EDI’s assessment of what Shepard went through was all I knew about it. Everything even now, over a year after it happened, all seem to lack details; and I felt neither of us really wanted to know. 

 _“Curiosity killed the cat”_  I heard Vega say once. Means it’s sometimes better not to know.

We exchanged stories, Bailey’s story of how he held out on the Citadel, and ours of what Earth was like. After that, he told us of His Ex-Wife. She wasn’t among the survivors but his Daughter had made it to a secret bunker somewhere. He told us what his daughter told him when he went to Earth to look for them once he was able to find a way off the station. His son saved her life when they were stopped by husks on the way to the hills where old WWII bunkers were. Some husks were about to grab them, so he just took off in the other direction screaming, giving his sister cover to make it to safety. That was the last Bailey’s daughter had seen of her brother and we can only assume what happened.

After another moment of silence, I asked “So where are we headed to first Shepard?” that seemed to move everyone past the pain that the reapers caused. 

Bailey said “yea, the whole citadel is free to roam, not sure what you’ll find. But I would recommend staying away from the tower, the salvage crew refuses to go near that place when they discovered there was no damage for a 600 foot radius of where the catalyst went off. If that doesn’t ring of a place you should avoid considering the rest of this place then I don’t know what is. Plus I saw some strange things up that way.”

"Strange things?" Shepard asked.

"Before I bunkered down, I got a glimpse into the streets below where I was. There were a lot of keepers collecting bodies and carrying them towards the tower. More than I've ever seen. ehh maybe it's nothing, they've tried to clean up crime scenes before, part of what they do to maintain the tower, but this... I don't know shepard something about it seemed off."

"That might explain all those bodies I passed by after I ended up on the Citadel... I don't know what the keepers were doing with them. I... probably don't even want to know." Shepard said.

She took a moment before saying "right, anyways we were planning on saving that place for last, we’ll check it out tomorrow, or the day after. See how long it takes to go from place to place.” Shepard said. Whether she would heed Bailey’s warning I didn’t know at the time. 

“Your choice Shepard, it’s not like I’m here to stop you… oh and one last thing, we’ve been here working on this place for a few months and we haven’t seen a single Keeper on the entire station. Not one corpse, nothing. Yea they cleaned up good, and there hasn't been one since. It’s not my pay grade to figure it out, but it just adds to the feeling we should scrap this whole station. Those kind of resources could be going into places that matter, like earth…. Or Palaven” he added nodding at me. “All the techs say scrap the place, I’ve forwarded that recommendation to the council, who as usual didn't listen and still deem it something worth bringing restoring along with the rest of the Galaxy. You;d think something like on the scale of what happened over earth would finally get their heads out of there ass and listen for once, but I guess some things never change. … anyways Shepard, I’ll let you go. Good to see you again, and you too Garrus.” 

With that, we all got up from the booth, exchanged goodbyes, couple of handshakes then Shepard walked out of the diner and out onto the street followed by EDI and myself.

_Hey, having any second thoughts about being here? Don’t let Shepard go to the tower, you know there’s bad news written all over it. I thought to myself._

We started walking along just gazing at the surrounding buildings. It’s just like what you’d expect to see down planet side. The only difference besides the obvious view change is now it feels It belongs to no-one, and no-one can recognize it. That follows into the feeling that neither of us really had any more business here; and that we all should just let this place go… let dead things lay.

_And what of Shepard?_

_Hmm, that’s different._

_Is it?_

_She’s alive, and I intend to keep it that way._

_You know you sound like a hypo—_

_were done thinking here._


	5. Shore leave, was never like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter had been updated to fix errors, and improve the overall quality. same goes for all chapters before and following it.

Silence.

We walked from place to place through the wards. We had to take rapid transit between most of the different areas as much of the damage had cut off access on foot. We visited all the places Shepard could remember going to, and we even detoured to a couple places important to me. 

It reminded me of the days after Saren. When I left the Normandy to go back to C-Sec and get my career in order, just like I told Shepard I would do. Anywhere that debris hit was a mess, along with countless civilian, C-sec, and Geth corpses to clean up. The whole place was a disaster and between cleaning up, restoring order and preventing all the looting and spiralling crime rate; not to mention the whole time I felt more weighed down by red tape then ever, especially after working with a spectre it just compounded the feeling and I eventually gave up and left, and... well, you already know where I ended up.

But the places we visited, all the damage reminded me of the damage Sovereign caused. The only difference being you could see it everywhere. Everywhere you looked it was the same story which helped make the whole station seemed like a lost cause. Any attempts to restore and repair it, especially without keepers, seemed like a waste of time and resources.

There wasn’t much to say, and we kept conversations to a minimum. We knew we were leaving Sunset strip till the end of the day. Shepard had mentioned hoping there was something left she could bring back to the Normandy from her old apartment. I did what I could to try and help her keep her hopes up. Though I knew the chances of that window still holding together were close to nothing, which means anything not bolted would of been tossed in every direction, right down to those damn plants I hated.

We were walking towards the next area when we happened across a shattered pizza restaurant. A few yards beyond the range of one of the artificial gravity generators that provided gravity for most of the station, on account of the station had ceased spinning. I was staring through the shattered window of the restaurant watching the free floating pizza toppings and doughs. After a few moments before Shepard noticed I had lagged behind and traced my gaze over to the store.

“Shit, did anyone pay the volus?” she said snapping my gaze away from restaurant.

“Yes, before we departed the Citadel I transferred the owed credits into his account.” EDI responded . Obviously missing the amusement in the statement.

“Sorry Shepard, but I believe that place was my second favourite restaurant, you did destroy the first.” I said.

“Shut up Garrus” she replied, unamused, but with a smile.

 

#

 

It was late in the day by the time we finished all the different wards locations minus the Sunset Strip, which was our final location for the day.

Sunset strip was a few kilometres away, but Shepard still opted to walk through the lower streets to get there. Not that I minded, figured we still had time to kill. It had been a while since we spent an entire day off-world. With no horizon to tell you when the day is over we had to rely on our suit clocks. There was a constant angle of the sun bouncing off the buildings and walls. The static sunlight wasn’t something you would be used to on the citadel, which usually surrounded by the shining dust of the widow nebula. The light only added to the  _'off'_  feeling the whole place gave you.

I remember reading somewhere that human females like holding hands on long strolls, and i was surprised how little we did that during our little holiday back on earth. I was, like usual, walking with EDI as Shepard took the lead. But with nothing going on and no one shooting at us I thought I could get some practice at this particular human thing. Turians usually save the hand holding for when we aren't walking around. Though I have seen many turian couples adopt the concept before, just not something I've ever done.

“uhhh..... Need a...... walking.... buddy Shepard?” I asked nervously, something about EDI walking right next to me AI or not. 'third wheel' i believe that idiom book I was giving called people who made dates awkward. Not that this was a date.... though it fits the usual mood of where Shepard always takes us. “you thinking of holding my hand Garrus?” she asked without looking back.

“Judging by what his readings are giving off, I believe that would be an accurate guess Shepard” EDI said. 

_One of the downsides of having an AI as a third wheel I guess._

“uh, well...” couldn’t really think of how to appropriately respond before Shepard said “your not going to accomplish anything from back there are you?”

“Sorry Shepard, guess anywhere I walk will feel weird. And holding your hand, while were both in armour?” I shook my head feeling increasingly silly about even thinking about it.

Shepard flipped around without stopping, her longer hair twirling around her in a dance  _-a tad mesmerizing-_  and she gave me a big frown “guess your still too shy, hmm... and after all this time, thought you would be used to all the liaison-rules” she said, making me feel even more silly.

My mandibles did a quick twitch of indecision before i quickly doubled my pace up to Shepard's side, and matched her pace. With a satisfied smile she spun around again and after a few moments of empty hands, she bumped me in the shoulder and I quickly looked over and remembered to take her hand in mine. I swear I could feel EDI smiling behind us, but i didn’t turn around to look.

After a few moments we settled into a comfortable rhythm and my nervousness of doing something wrong subsided. You know, hard to keep up the bad ass turian attitude when your holding hands with your alien girlfriend. Not that there was anyone around to judge other than EDI. Thinking back, I don't even know why it was even an issue... I guess surroundings had me guessing on the timing of it.

We found our way into a back alley that lead through a back entrance into the Casino, there was a door we had to go through so the hand holding had to be put on hold. Shepard went in, followed myself and EDI. The kitchen inside was a mess, spoiled food, and pots and pans everywhere; Like a twister came through it. We had to step over all the stuff on the ground as we began to make our way into what would be the second floor of the Casino.

We stepped through the next door and into the casino. “woah, this is...” I said as I stepped out after Shepard who was just standing outside the door, looking at all the damage. EDI finished my sentence with “extreme” as she stepped out after me.

A little over half of the second floor was gone, from half way across the dance floor all the way to the bar it had collapsed onto the lower floor, all the windows were shattered just like everywhere else. The giant chandelier in the middle behind the dance floor was shredded to pieces, and there were pieces of glass from it all over the place.

“It appears as if some debris colliding with this structure may have caused such significant damage” EDI said, analyzing everything she saw.

“lot of good memories here... damn shame to see this place like this” I said, shaking my head.

“Damn, this was my favourite hangout while we were around here.....shit” Shepard said.

“I wish I could have taken you back here Shepard, after everything; and so we could enjoy the place, without the constant knowledge of everything that was happening outside. Another dancing session would have been... nice, too... damn look at this place” i said; memories washing up of the weeks of planning that 'first date' night. Something that started off as a suggestion on account of we never really ever had a first date. Along with the 'first date' I had the bright idea of teaching Shepard how to dance. Properly, none of that arm waggling, and so I spent an hour looking up human dance customs, and eventually happened upon tango. So behind the closed doors of the forward battery I spent hours teaching myself the basic steps of this completely new form of dance for me. Of course EDI began to question my actions and it became our little secret, and EDI would notify my excitedly of when Shepard was doing her rounds and was approaching the forward battery. I would quickly jolt back to my terminal and tab out of all the practice vids, and bring up something technical looking. And when she stepped in i would just go “hey Shepard” or “not right now” without looking at her. I thought she would of been able to catch onto me hiding something if I were to look her in the face.

Must have worked because I was damn excited that night. And she was caught completely off guard after I had ran out of 'first date' banter. All those hours of practice boiled up to that one, perfect, moment; and Shepard was damn good, guess she dances better with a partner.

“Garrus” Shepard said, grabbing my attention out of the flashback. I snapped my view right to her and quickly replied “yes, Shepard?”

“I'm done here, let's make our way to the apartment” she said. Clearly ready to put this place behind her.

“I'm right behind you” i said, I've already had enough looking at a waste of such a place, it's like the sushi place without the comedy of Shepard breaking it. 

_Well, she's kind of responsible for this too_

_Theres nothing funny about it this time though_

_Hmm true._

Outside was no better, the bridge connecting the whole strip was mostly gone, and there were large gashes of whatever came through here in the walls of the surrounding buildings. This whole place was just one big wind tunnel for whatever came through here. Must be why here seemed more damaged than other areas. “Garrus, how's the apartment look from here?” Shepard asked, gesturing to my new helmet.

I grabbed my helmet and put it on. With a quick clamp of the seals the HUD came online and i gazed over to Shepard's apartment. “scan” i whispered to the VI system and after a few quick beeps and blurs it gave me a 3d outline of the Shepard's apartment. I could make out most of the stuff, like Shepard's couch hanging out of where the window used to be, and the big TV was smashed. From the Holographic data the place was a mess, even worse than after that party.

“well?” Shepard asked. “could we stay the night up there? I'm exhausted.”

“well... I told you that giant window was a bad idea. Upstairs room would be a bad choice, looks like that tub washed into the rooms and soaked everything. Best bet is the room on the first floor... looks alright... almost seems like someone went in to clean it up” I said

“huh, probably one of of repair crew. Red carpet equivalent?” Shepard said “guess so” I replied, taking off my helmet and placing it back onto it's grip.

We had to make our way through a couple flights of service stairs down to a bridge further down, then make our way across and over to the elevator and up the ladder since the elevator itself was at the bottom of the shaft. When we got to the top, we had to jump backwards onto the floor since it was opposite the ladder, luckily, the elevator door was gone, making this much easier to do.

The door to the apartment was leaning against the wall in front of the entrance; so we just simply walked in. First thing I noticed was those damn plants were still around.  Of course.

The bar was still mostly intact, and with a quick rummage through the cupboards under the table I found an intact bottle of Turian Horosk, along with some rum for Shepard. 

_Don’t drink that whole thing, you want to be able to get up in the morning/ hey remember Theanor? Drank two bottles of that stuff? Lost the use of his legs? Yeah, don’t do that._

“hey Shepard, look what’s still around” I said, waving both bottles from across the room, Shepard popped her head out of the kitchen with what appeared to be a can of beans with the top sheered off with an omni-blade. Shepard, nimbly munching away gave me a wide eyes look when she saw what I was holding. She then gestured over to the room I mentioned. “hah, oh, huh... don't you want to look around first?” I said, thinking that moving straight to that portion of the night was kind of sudden.

Without stopping Shepard shoved another spoonful into her mouth and shook her head with a gobbled “nuh-uh” sound. She then turned around and proceeded into the first floor bedroom. I grabbed two cups, and scurried right after Shepard. I passed EDI who gave me a sideways look, I thought about suggesting she do something, but than I was interrupted with a huge clang of Shepard throwing a piece of her armour on the ground. I looked from the room, to EDI, and back to the room, then back to EDI. EDI then said “go ahead, I will power down this unit for your privacy when I am done exploring the damage... besides joker has enough videos of you two from on board the Normandy” with a free finger I pointed an accusing finger at her to which she responded “that was a joke”. 

I gave her a look then turned and proceeded into the room. The room had indeed been cleaned up a little. At least, the bed was made and there wasn’t anything lying on the floor. There were a few dents in the walls, but compared to the rest of the citadel. This room appeared almost untouched.

We spent the rest of the night on the bed next to our respective drinks and each other. And together we tried to push away the thoughts of everything around us, and as we fell into the rhythm of the night we did our best despite everything to have another, perfect, moment.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that this was a pretty decent ending to a chapter. Things don't get crazy till later, so thanks for making it this far XD


	6. Presidium pains, and bacon?

I woke up to EDI standing right over me, when she saw my stir she took a step back and said “good morning Garrus, I took the liberty to cook you and the Commander breakfast, though it is almost noon earth time.” ignoring EDI's liberal sense of privacy, I shook my head to get the blood flowing again and said “err, noon? Damn were not gonna be even close to finishing this by tonight.”

I haven’t slept in this late in a long time and was kicking myself a little. I turned to look at Shepard, who through the night somehow managed to build herself a cocoon out of every pillow and blanket on the bed. With only her head popping out with a scrunched expression, the same face she gives me whenever she watches me pick food out of my teeth in the washroom. One of my nightly routines she never seems to tire of watching. My side of the bed was bare, but I didn't really mind, I was used to sleeping in my armour in the forward battery so.... well, you know. Can't really complain.

“Would you like me to wake her?” EDI asked patiently waiting at the corner of the bed with an eager look on her, as if she was looking forward to serving us this meal she had prepped up.

“No, I can do that... didn’t know you cooked” I said as I began get into my armour for the day. I could smell the freshly cooked meal from over in the kitchen, but above all was the overpowering scent of those human jerky strips... bacon? Yea the greasy meat strips that whenever that was being cooked you could smell it all over the ship. That thought gave me an idea so I said “if you want, bring a plate of bacon over, that usually wakes her right up.” EDI nodded and bounced on the balls of her feet with excitement as she nodded, said “right away” and scurried off into the kitchen.

Bacon, never understood how there wasn't one single non-dextro crew member on the Normandy who didn't like the stuff, It seemed like a staple ingredient in most morning meals, and when the ship ran out, you could feel the drop in moral. It was.... interesting first time I discovered everyone's love of the stuff. Even more so when I figured out how the stuff could probably wake Shepard up from a coma. 

 _Not that I'm interested in testing that theory._  

I had to stop myself from laughing when I brought up Shepard a meal that one time on the Normandy and with out even opening her eyes she bolted upright and said “BACON! Sweet!”. It's... well, not sure of a word.

Great, now im hungry. My stomach protested to my train of thought.

I finished placing on my armour and stood up and watched as EDI entered the room with a plate full of the stuff, still steaming, and after a few moments Shepard stretched her limbs wide and woke up with a voracious look in her eyes. “Thank everything that smell wasn't just me dreaming.” she said and happily took a bunch and stuffed them in her mouth before proceeding to get out of bed. With her mouth still full and in classic Shepard fashion she said “mhm, err, I... Didn’t know you knew how...mmm.. to...Mmph... cook EDI”.

Shepard walked over to her closet, grabbing some more off the plate EDI was holding on the way, and started to rifle through the various colours of house coats. She picked a silvery blue one and flung it around herself. Satisfied, she led us to the Kitchen and over to the dining table – which was snapped in half, along with a large hole in the wall, and was being held up by some makeshift supports out of what appeared to be some of the chairs--- and we all sat down and ate. EDI already had a plate ready for me and made a plate for herself with a mix of dextro and levo food. Not sure what her body does with the food though... didn’t question it at the time. We spent the next few minutes 'chowing down'  _-that’s a new one-_  and complimenting EDI on the food.

* * *

we finished up our morning and after some quick planning, we made our way back to one of the salvage/repair outposts a few kilometres away from Shepard’s apartment (overcoming a couple small obstacles like half the road/building missing, you know, nothing major) and from the outpost we took a shuttle over to the presidium. There was no oxygen restored to this part of the station according to the techs driving the shuttle so it was helmets on for Shepard and I. The shuttle dove through a large hole in the false sky the circled the entire presidium. 

 _Just another shattered luxury._  

On the inside there was no gravity either. This was made apparent by the abundance of floating flora, leaves, flowers, water from the artificial lakes, and even pieces that hadn’t managed to lodge themselves into the wall.

“Yea, check this out commander, I Have NO fu***** clue how were supposed to clean that up.” our pilot noted as he turned the shuttle sideways to show us the bottom of the presidium floor through the hatch. Like a reaper sized  _–you really using that as a reference? For shame--_  dart board for everything that got tossed into the place. Broken balconies, shattered presidium bridges similar to where the Huerta memorial hospital was located, and down at the bottom were room sized pieces of wall, building, ect. Stuck in through the twisted bottom like knives. The walls were torn everywhere and made the damage in the wards seem like nothing more than post-riot damage. The presidium was a total mess.

Out the left hatch of the shuttle we could see the roof; a bullet hole scene, but scaled up to fit all the pieces that forced themselves through the outer walls of the presidium. Light from the sun lit up half the presidium at an awkward angle, but left the other half in relative darkness.

“I, don’t think there will be much left to look at on this trip Shepard” I said, unconvinced there would be anything left. She shrugged slowly, still staring out with the rest of us out into the carnage of the place. It kind reminded me –and I'm sure Shepard as well-- as how it looked when sovereign attacked all those years ago, and some of the pieces of him that shattered their way into the presidium smashing anything on their way. But this was a whole new level. Sovereign was just localized area's, this was the entire presidium.

“What's left of the Normandy's old docking bay?” Shepard asked. Keeping her gaze out the hatch as the shuttle continued to fly along the inside of the presidium. “gone, the whole place including the level below it. Took a hit from something a bit larger than the debris that made those holes in the top.”

* * *

“So... I guess it's back to the fight.”

...

“That doesn’t sound like my girl, you'll find a way to win, and when this is over, I'll be waiting for you”

...

“best times of my life were on that ship, been a damn good ride”

...

* * *

“damn” I said, shaking myself out of that memory. I resisted moving my hand up to my helmet to compose myself. And managed without it. Who knew you could place so many memories in somewhere as everyday as a docking bay. Was surprised at how those memories hurt more than the silver strip memories. The silver strip just left you feeling empty. But hearing that the Normandy's dock was dust hit me harder than I was prepared for.

We flew by the human embassy, which was just a cracked door, the entire room was gone, torn away by flying debris. That’s one spot done, lets get this over with. Next we went to the presidium commons, passing the hospital on the way which was as you'd expect, not there anymore. The commons were in pretty rough shape, but compared to everything else in the presidium we've seen so far, it wasn’t so bad. At least there was a spot to land.

We stepped down into that advertisement tunnel which gave way to a nice view of the carnage in the distance along with all the stuff floating in the air. While walking we had to, more that once push a plate sized piece of debris out of our way and watch it float away. You could hear all the glass and debris protest your disturbance as they pinged off your helmet and armour sending them careening off elsewhere. There were the expected large chunks of something on the lower part of the commons, so we were more or less limited to the bridge, the rooms on the inside were blocked by broken doors, and some wall panels that came loose. I never spent a lot of time around here so nothing I saw here was particularity important to me. And whether Shepard had any particular fond memories of this place I couldn’t tell. After a half hour of walking around, we headed back to the waiting shuttle, before we stepped on I looked up at the ceiling, imagining the elevator doors to the docking bay opening to nothing but dust and empty space. I thought I could almost make out a specific dent in the part of the wall pushing inwards. But If I did it could easily be lost to all the other torn and twisted things in here.

As we looped around the area to where the purgatory balcony was we were stopped by what looked like whats left of the admin room of the hospital, which had pierced it's way through the balcony and front door of the bar. There was no way we were getting in there. I caught Shepard subtly shifting her shoulders and I could imagine the half surprised look that usually follows it. 

“hmm, well, I never did really like that place... reminded me too much of Omega” I said wryly. Shepard replied with a jab of her elbow in my side and I could almost see the smile behind her helmet.

We continued flying around and after a couple minutes I started to make out the presidium area directly above C-sec HQ. I asked if Shepard wanted to go and explore there and before she could ask “do you?” the tech driving the shuttle interrupted telling us that entire place was collapsed. C-sec HQ was gone.

“Garrus used to work for C-Sec” Shepard said. Not sure if she was trying to defend me, or if that info was necessary, either way I felt my breath taken away. “oh....I'm sorry. bit insensitive of me.” our pilot responded remorsefully.

Thoughts of the countless times that I have been through that place started to wash in and I was tempted to just sit down and take a minute; a fleeting thought quickly done away. Shepard must have noticed my shift in balance because I soon found her hand on my shoulder and she was staring at me through her helmet. No eye contact could of been made but you knew you were looking right at each other. 

_It's all gone, nothing you can do, move on, you're with Shepard now._

* * *

After a couple of hours we finished visiting all the places around the presidium, as the shuttle flew through a hole out of the presidium we had a clear view of the Citadel tower.

You could even see that a certain distance from the top, where the crucible used to be, it looked almost untouched. All the atmospheric plates, and even the glass was still intact for a couple hundred feet. And below it, as if from an entirely different section, was the lower half of the tower, wires and cords floating out of holes, bent and torn pieces of wall, shattered windows everywhere. The lower tower matched the destruction of everywhere else on the Citadel, the only thing out of place was the top half.

“Would you look at that, something must of protected where you were Shepard.” I said, staring at the glimmer of the pristine outer surface of the top of the tower, as if it were some kind of alien...or giant warning sign. 

_Well, you know, an alien you're not used to being around. Hmm, bad example, warning sign is better._

Anyways, the whole thing really made my plates itch, it shouldn’t have been like that.

“Yea,... maybe. Doesn't explain how I ended up on Earth though.” Shepard replied.

“No, it doesn’t” I said.  _nor does it explain anything else you've pulled of before Shepard._

I wanted to ask if Shepard really intended on going up there, even with all the red flags, and with all the salvage/repair techs scared of going near it. I wanted to tell her to just forget about it. That place where she finally destroyed the reapers wasn’t important to me, I didn't need to know the details, nor did really want to know. She was with me now, the reapers were gone, we were both alive. That was good enough for me.

As if reading my mind Shepard looked at me, took her helmet off –the shuttle doors were closed by now-- and looked at me sideways, as if trying to gauge my expression through my helmet. I returned the sideways look and finally she said “we'll head up there, get it over with, then head out and find your sister, she's arriving tomorrow right?”

"Of course Shepard, Im right behind you." I replied.

I didn't want to question her, if she wanted to go, I was right behind her. I knew we would be able to take care of ourselves if it turned out the place was cursed or something. But knowing that doesn’t do much to stem that worry. I nodded in reassurance before turning to look out at the tower one more time.

There, tomorrow is planned, get it over with, see Solana. Simple.

When is it ever simple?

 


	7. To top it off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> finally, able to delay no longer, they make their way to where it all ended.

The minute we set down onto the side of the tower where the damage ended; at the edge between the destruction and the untouched, I was ready to leave. The tech who was driving the shuttle sure as hell didn't stick around for very long. Not that I was afraid or anything, just... a gut feeling, and I was worried because I knew the as always Shepard was likely heading into something that would put her life at risk. I don’t like that, while it was necessary during the war and even though I know she could take care of herself damn well better than anyone I could think of, I still didn’t like it.

Guess it comes down to just how close I came to almost losing her. Destroying the reapers almost cost my Shepard her life, and dammed if I didn’t feel so helpless. With each step towards the top sent another pained thought filled with memories of her during those long days of recovery, and the days before that when I had no idea as to whether or not she was even alive. Stuck on that dammed jungle for days, while she was out there... or not.

_Just watch her six, at least nothing will be shooting at her this time._

I swallowed my thoughts and concentrated on my surroundings, scanning all the possible vantage points as if I expected a ravager, or a banshee to pop out of no-where and start taking shots at us. Hell I would be fine with a geth sniper. If they were still even our enemies, or around. ..Geth. That was an oddly distracting thought. My work with reactivating EDI and it's success and certain revelations would get out eventually; and while I don’t expect the council, or the Quarian fleet, er, the Quarians to jump to bringing any geth back online, I'm sure there are lots of people out there who feel they owe it to the geth to bring them back like how we brought back EDI.

Geth,  _hell_. I even remember this route. This is where we were all those years ago when sovereign attacked. Grav boots keeping us locked to the ground as we pushed our way to the council chambers.

“God.... I remember those dammed rocket launchers that used to be here, back with sovereign, huh garrus?” Shepard said aloud, again almost reading my thoughts.

“uhh, yea. Nothing like trying to snipe geth with rockets shooting at your face. at least they were slow any easy to dodge” I replied as smoothly as I could, hiding the slight internal turmoil of being here.

“yea garrus, wouldn't want anything bad to come to that face of yours, hard enough to look at” she replied, obvious smirk behind the tone of her voice.

I grinned behind my helmet, quickly trying to think of a clever comeback. Though EDI beat me to it.

“You know Shepard, If I had the option to subject this unit to a standard rocket, or a reaper laser. I would choose the rocket. I believe Garrus is superior in his choice.”

“I.. don’t think it was actively a choice EDI, but I support your conclusion” I said, chuckling to myself, that uneasy feeling in my gut lifting a little.

“hey! Whose side are you on!” Shepard exclaimed, likely dismayed at the odds of winning this one turning against her..

“I do not understand what you mean” EDI replied with that smile that tells you she's lying.

 

#

 

“It should just be over the edge here” Shepard claimed, as we neared the edge of the side of the tower.

Even without gravity, or a sense of down, you still get that feeling of vertigo as you looked over the edge, over the top of the presidium. From here you could make out what looked like three bridges all heading towards a centre point, which expanded out towards the rim of something I didn’t recognize. It was as if someone took the top of the presidium, and lifted it into a new position, and it just floated there, and from it extended the bridges all formerly a solid part of the top of the presidium.

If you asked me, it almost seemed like The Citadel was ready to connect to the crucible, and had moved the pieces into place. We were still a ways up, or... well, it would be a few hundred feet of Zero-G freefall to reach it. And there was no straight path to reach where we wanted to go, It was either jump, or find a way in through the Citadel.

“there it is” Shepard said with a long exasperated exhale. Like when you return to a place with bad spirits.

“Guess were not just gonna jump?” I said, failing to brighten things up.

“No, look, we'll head through there” Shepard said, pointing down farther to the right, where there was what looked like an entrance hatch into some part of the Citadel I've never been. “keeper tunnels huh? hmm, right behind you” I said.

As we made our way over the edge and over to the hatch, neither of us could stop glancing over to the top where the bridges where. Like a monument on some important mountain, like an amusement ride from the parking lot –though this wasn't exactly promising to be fun-- the bridges gleamed as Earths sun cast awkward angles on it. There was nothing i could recognize that would of belonged to the crucible and Shepard was pointing out the same thing. “can't make it out from here if there’s anything left, we'll have to wait until we get over there” she said as we approached the hatch and blocking the central structure from view.

“Give me a minute, I'll get this open” I said and began to make my way to the hatch, opening my omni-tool, when suddenly the door bursted with blue energy and was ripped from is frame and tossed out into space. “after you” Shepard said quietly, biotic energy subsiding from her body. I ignored the thought of commenting on the overkill of the door and we made our way into a dark passageway barely tall enough for me to stand in. At the end was a crooked plate that looked like the wall to another hall. There was some light emanating from the other side and with one large kick it came smashing down to reveal the absolute horror that awaited us.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In me1 avina mentions that the citadel tower is the largest traffic of keepers in the whole citadel. This fact plays in to something that is revealed later.


	8. The Admiral

Heavy dust poured out into the vacuum through the new hole in the wall, blocking the interior from view for a few seconds. As it settled we stepped inside and moved down a narrow passageway, almost too small to heft my armour through. A little ways into the passageway a bulkhead clamped down behind us, and the subtle hiss of pressurization took up the silence. Once it ended and there was sufficient air that our suit allowed the non-toxic air to flow through our filters and we were immediately assaulted by the smell of rotting corpses. “what happened here?” I asked, with no response from either Shepard or EDI who were continuing down the hall ahead of me.

Our passageway ended at a wall panel that seemed like it could easily be shoved out of the way. Before removing it Shepard looked back, her eyes staring right through her helmet “that smell is coming through this wall,... ready?”

_Probably a bad thing that I'm familiar with that smell..._

“Right behind you Shepard” i nodded. 

EDI nodded as well “Ready” and with a shove with her shoulder Shepard tore the loose panel out of the wall and it came smashing onto the floor with Shepard on top of it.

A black almost oozing dust came swirling out from under the panel which was resting at an angle as if something was keeping it from resting flat on the floor. EDI and I pressed into the room and as I reached out a hand to Shepard I looked to the side and down this new hall and it made me pause for a second.

If there was any space in my helmet my mandibles would have dropped to the floor. The halls were lined with corpses, the floors had a carpet of congealed blood that squished with every step you would take, like stepping on a plaviin plant.

err.... like stepping onto 'jell-o' apparently is the best equivalent.

And there were pieces everywhere, an arm here, a torso, half of a head. And it somehow seemed like they had all melted into each other a little, like they were all now just a solid mass of a single corpse, with many souls.

Something grabbing onto my arm jolted my attention away from the horror and I quickly looked to see that it was Shepard excepting my still extended hand. With a heave I pulled her onto her feet and she began wiping off a film of bile off her armour. “glad i wore my helmet” she said wryly.

She took a minute to look around while EDI was hugging her shoulders as if to reduce the amount of filth getting onto her platform, her expression was further evidence to this.

“I... I remember this room” Shepard said finally. At one end about 30 feet away was a dead end. A solid wall with some kind of claw in front of it. At the other end appeared to be a large bulkhead door of sorts, similar to the one that clamped down as we entered into these tunnels. “over there... i remember waking up over there,... Anderson..... he was contacting me...” she said. My visor wasn’t picking anything up, that area was a dead end. Then I turned and asked “woke up, Shepard?”

“I... I'm not sure, it felt like when i first woke up when Cerberus rebuilt me, but... fast like I was forced awake, and... not allowed to... I...” my visor was telling me her heart was racing as she recalled this moment, as if realizing something, but not wanting to believe it.

“to regain consciousness in the same way as when Cerberus rebuilt you is to assume that for a moment, here you were....” EDI paused as if unable to finish her sentence, either out of awe or respect.

The thought that Shepard could have died here made me tense, rigid. And the thought that something about the implants and cybernetics she had -which were likely reaper tech to even be able to bring her back to life in the first place – forced her alive again made me feel sick. 

_I can't lose you Shepard, and finding out you've been dying on me hurts._

That thought passed through my mind but I didn’t voice it. I kept a cool level headed attitude on the outside, and pushed those thoughts and emotions to the back of my mind.

“This is worse than the collector base, the bodies, they've been.... sitting a while.” I said, moving the topic away from Shepard 'waking up'.

“huh, yea, but at least nothing is trying to kill us” Shepard replied.

“why do I feel were going to regret you saying that later?” I said

“you worry to much”

we pushed our way through the muck over to the bulkhead door, as we neared it, it opened right up for us and revealed another long hallway. This place was different, almost no corpses here. And to the sides were countless panels, like the capacitors back on the shadow broker ship, but none of them were moving, and these were more spread apart.

“these used to be working” Shepard told us, “it was... brighter here, and those panels were shooting lightning across this entire place.... come on, just up ahead.” she carried on ahead, moving faster trying not to stay too long in one place.

a short climb up a ramp we moved forward. Then as we entered the next room, we all stopped.

In the dimly lit room, a ray of light pierced its way through a thick dust as it made it's way across from one side to the other. As it did it lit up an exhausted figure, slumped up against a raised platform. It was wearing a dusty alliance uniform and an alliance hat threatened to fall off it's head as it faced down with slumped shoulders. After a moment EDI made her way past it to a still functioning control panel and concentrated on that, while Shepard slowly stepped towards the tired figure, I followed her every step.

She knelt down next to it and took off her helmet. I did the same as she stood motionless before him. After a long couple moments, she decided to remove his hat, as she did it tore off the top – half decomposed skin on his skull. Shepard quickly threw the hat away and hesitated to fix the top of his head. He was clearly really fragile and any further interaction with him would likely tear him to pieces.

His eyes were closed and his skin drooped a little from his face, but not enough to take away the expression from his face. The bags under his eyes were still apparent and with the sag of his shoulders you could still sense the pure exhaustion emanating from him. You could almost see him standing again with all the weight on his shoulders, and how it all finally brought him down. You even felt that in rest he still felt the exhaustion of life and war, and it followed him through death. It was a tired figure and if you looked at it too long you became exhausted and you could feel it's pain, as if it was begging to borrow your energy for itself to try and get out of it's own pit of fatigue and sorrow. You can see that expression on a lot of leaders these days.

Some of the skin on his fingers had already peeled off exposing bone, it's likely that his uniform and the low gravity was keeping him from falling to pieces, though there was enough oxygen in the room to decay him significantly. only enough to breath for a few minutes before you would get light headed.

“Anderson....” Shepard let out in a low cry. She then sat right next to him and assumed a similar tired pose, as if recalling something from memory, like it was rehearsed. She placed her arm on her stomach as if covering an invisible wound. It's was like she regretted being allowed to move on while his fate placed him here in this position, like his cry of unfairness shouted her to the ground and demanded she take notice at his fate. As if it should of been her, as if she shouldn’t even be here right now. And that it's all wrong.

Then after a moment, she seemed to remember I was near, and turned to look at me.

“...... he... died, right next to me, I..... shot him,... but I didn’t want to-- the illusive man.....” then she seemed to almost wake up a little and started looking around the area. “the illusive man”

“He was here?” I asked failing to see what he had to do with all this. That’s when I figured he must of been somehow responsible for what happened to Anderson. “Shepard?” I asked.

“His body is gone, it was right here!” she said standing up and pointing to an empty spot on the ground.

“he... he... I,” she started. “he implanted himself with reaper tech, with... like Saren, and he somehow forced me to shoot Anderson, but where is he?”

without turning away from her terminal EDI offered “if that is the case it is likely that the dust in this room is the Illusive man, after death all reaper corpses activate nanobots which disintegrate them entirely to remove evidence for future cycles, if the Illusive man was a reaper, it is likely that he followed the same fate”.

Shepard and I stood with terrified looks on our face at EDI, who had her back to us.

“illusive dust..'cough'..... didn’t need to know that EDI” I said, promptly placing my helmet back on.

“that... makes sense I guess, “ *cough* “thanks EDI” Shepard said. 

“of course, perhaps I should have mentioned it before you removed your helmets. And Shepard, I am sorry for your loss, the admiral was an... important figure in your life. He is sorely missed. I have contacted the alliance to see that he receives a proper burial in London.” EDI replied.

"Thanks EDI" Shepard said, a little low on words.

I took a moment to stare out past the platform. You could see a portion of earth in the lower corner, and the sun up near the top left corner. With the wards still partially extended you couldn't really see them from this place without looking over the edge. After a moment Shepard joined me and also gazed at the view.

“I don’t remember how I got to those bridges, but they should be right above us.” Shepard said, taking one last look at the tired figure behind us before pushing her thoughts about Anderson past her. 

Ready to move on.

“Like this” EDI said with a press of a button she swiftly turned and joined us where we were standing, then the floor lifted out of the ground and started levitating upwards. The sudden movement startled me and I instinctively reached a hand back to my gun, which told my suit's computer to release the lock on the handle. I debated whether or not to just follow through and grab it, but quickly decided against that, and the gun compacted itself again.

Right before the lift reached the top my visor pinged me that there was movement down the hall we came through. I turned around to try and get a visual but the lift went through the next floor before I could catch anything. Then when we reached the top my HUD shut off, as if passing through an EMP field.

I tried restarting it through my omni-tool with no luck. The lift stopped and Shepard asked “everything alright Garrus?” noticing my increased movement. “helmet pinged me before we reached the top that something was moving in the corridor we came through, and now my whole damn helmet and visor are off”

“that is... ominous” EDI said cautiously. “well it's a good thing we brought our guns.” Shepard replied.

We arrived at the bridge and Shepard explained what the AI child told her here, she pointed to the three bridges and re-called the three choices that EDI mentioned when she was reactivated. This area was pristine to a fault; almost no damage to the point it made you feel... wrong.

To the left, a pillar with what looked like two handles. Control.

In the middle, a portion of the crucible that was protected by whatever kept this place safe still hanging over like a domed roof, no longer emanating the large beam that extended all the way to earth. Synthesis.

And to the right, a giant burned out exploded tube. That had various melted parts keeping it together, it was the only damaged piece in the entire area. Destroy.

“I take it the only broken piece is your doing?” I said, an empty tease.

“yea" Shepard half shrugged "I walked up and shot that, and it exploded. Next thing I remember is waking up in the Normandy, and screaming in pain.”

“yea. I remember” I said quietly. Not wanting to recall those days again.

We walked over to the tube to look around. Nothing about it suggested any means for how Shepard ended up back on earth, but it does explain how she may have gotten all the burns she had. We were all too busy looking forwards that none of us noticed it appear right behind us. Only when EDI turned around and with a startled voice “behind us.” did we turn around.

Before us stood a keeper.

It was standing still at the end of the bridge we were on. Looking at us, and twisting its head from side to side like a bug.

“so much for no keepers” I said, failing to once again turn on my visor or helmet computers.

“what's it doing?” Shepard followed. My instincts told me something was off about this. 

 _-Same damn feeling i've had for a while-_  

The salvage crew has been here for months and they haven't seen a single keeper; and here is one staring at us in a place like this. Not a coincidence. After a moment it scattered away, going over the side of the bridge.. 

“huh, little bugger just jumped, guess all this low gravity helps” Shepard said.

When we moved to the edge to try and get a look at where it had gone we all in unison pulled out our respective weapons. “oh shit”.

Climbing up the sides were thousands nigh countless keepers, all heading for the top of the bridge and us. “were about to get hit!” I yelled, prepping my assault rifle. “Quick head to the middle over there, its farthest from the edge. Don t let them get near you.” Shepard barked. EDI and I acknowledged and as we started to make our way to our strategic position the first keepers started pouring over the side of the bridge.

Like some great horde they kept pouring through, as we let loose on the opening ranks, they fell quickly. A concussive shot sent a group of them flying off the edge as we ran for the middle.

“EDI, we need a way back down” Shepard yelled over the gunfire. After incinerating a group of keepers EDI yelled back “I can't access any systems from here, I am being jammed, there IS no way off!”

“Find a way!”. As the first wave of keepers fell some kind of armoured variation of them started pouring over the side, these ones had guns and enough armour on them to take more than a few hits. Despite carrying weapons none of them were firing. Instead it seemed they just planned on swarming us, at any cost.

Soon, they were approaching faster than we could kill them, Shepard tore a whole flank off with her biotics and you could still hear the 'woosh' as her shock waves were sent out. Hundreds of them went down, but for every one we killed, three more replaced it. Once they got within 10 feet of us I hefted my assault rifle in my right arm, bracing it against my right side, and kept firing. Then with a double tab of my fist to the rear of my armour my computers beeped twice and released the locks on my rifle. I grabbed that and swung it around and planted it on my other side and started firing both weapons from the hip. Aim wasn’t even necessary at this point as there were so many keepers rushing us. The three of us kept our backs to each other in a three man circle. EDI had pulled out her other gun and was firing both at the same time as well. We all kept firing until we ran out of clips and a quick glance at Shepard’s expression told me she had exhausted her biotic abilities. And even then there were still keepers charging for us. Once I used my last thermal clip I simultaneously placed both guns on my back, and as they locked into place I swung out my omni-blade and swung at the first keeper, severing it's head. Like a flash of light a second keeper jumped onto my back, and another onto my other arm. Soon there were several of them tearing me down to the ground. I screamed out as I threw them off and turned to see a group of other keepers attempting to carry away Shepard. I tried to wade my way through the increasing mass of keepers to her but was stopped by the keepers trying to keep me in one spot.

“EDI! Get to Shepard!” I yelled. EDI was only a few paces away by now and simply nodded at me then gracefully leaped over the keepers, using one as a ramp and closed the distance to Shepard who was getting farther away by the second. I looked up and The Normandy was closing in, some of the crew hanging over the ramp of the cargo bay shooting down into the fray.

'WHATS HAPPENING?!” came a voice through the radio “they swarmed us, they're trying to get shepard!” I screamed back through the radio. “EDI!” came joker.

“dammit! I need a path!” I yelled, frantic, double tap to the back, I took out both guns again brought them together in front of me and sent dual concussive shots straight ahead of me, tearing through the keepers and providing a clear path straight to EDI and Shepard. I ran towards them, but before I could get close enough the keepers threw themselves over the side with EDI holding on to Shepard's arm, both of them still struggling to get free.

After they disappeared over the side all the remaining keepers broke off and retreated back over the side, abandoning their fallen. “I'm going after them!” I yelled up to the Normandy and without waiting for a response I went to the edge and jumped. I fell about 20 feet to another platform and forced myself up again, the low gravity lessening impact, and I looked over to the other platform where we were before.

I took a single breath and jumped for it. I fell another 35 feet and was only just able to grab onto the ledge of the platform. I scrambled up onto it and looked down the hall to see the keepers still moving to the end with Shepard and EDI. “IM RIGHT BEHIND YOU SHEPARD!” I screamed as I took off after them.

Down the hall through the dip with the opening, back through the room with the corpses, down a hatch through a narrow space and into another room. A keeper jumped me as I rounded the corner and in a single motion I snapped it's neck and tossed it aside without even stopping. Through that room into another hall and into a room with another of those claws in the middle. The room was empty and I tried turning on my visor and helmet again. With a hum the HUD turned back on and indicated no movement anywhere near me. Not behind the walls or anything.

Shepard and EDI were gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to put emotion into the part with Anderson. but I lack the finesse and vocabulary to make it hurt as much as it should. It's also assumed that they will return with the proper material and give him a proper burial and that they arnt just abandoning him. 
> 
> I also think that the low gravity and perhaps mass field generators in the keeper backpack can alter gravity of a surface they are walking on, and that they are programmed or instructed to only do this when not in sight of organics on the station. Not that they give a damn about subtlety during this chapter


	9. Till We Part

* * *

I sat there in Dr. Chakwas's chair staring a bruised and battered body. It was barely moving, unconscious. She had bandages covering most of her scars, and there was red seeping through most of her wounds. Fresh incisions over most of her body where Chakwas had removed most of her implants. Each breath was a moment in it's own and my breath matched hers. I stared intently for hours and time faded away from the ebb and flow of her subtle breathing. Some faceless crew came by a few times to offer me food or rest, all of which I refused without looking away. 

Chakwas had removed most of the implants all of which no longer functioned after the blast. It was tech and all tech was effected. I had no clue as to how much she relied on it to stay alive, shuddering to think how she was brought back to life, with unknown Cerberus tech.

_Don't leave me... I don't want to be alone..._

Days passed, but the lights in the med-bay always remained on. Only the peripheral traffic flow of the mess outside gave me any indication of time. My own injuries were not even healed and the longer I held in one place the more I could feel the tension in them, that feeling that begs you to stretch and move around. There was even a moment in which the power in the ship turned off again, shutting off all monitors and lights. Fallback from the blast, and without EDI it took several minutes to get power restored. Even with near blind panic of the possibility of the blackout affecting Shepard, and no indication of life signs from the monitors, I didn't move, just kept staring, listening. Listening to her breath in the darkness, like listening for a subtle breeze on a summer night that told you a storm was just a few days away. Only it held onto everything you hold dear, and you beg it to keep going, and praying over your lack of control.

 

#

 

“what kind of 'tech' did you use exactly?” I asked Miranda, storming into her room.

“Why? Concerned about my work? I can assure you---” she tried to reply.

“Dammit, DONT......” I sighed and took a deep breath.' “don't avoid the question, she means a lot to me and you know that. We both know what happened to her and how....... what did it take?” I asked.

“Cerberus had multiple resources focused on her recovery, how far she adapts to her implants is up to her.”

I clenched my fist, annoyed at the evasive responses.“adapts to what exactly?” I asked, clearly implying my need for an answer to my prior question.

“Garrus, I understand your concerned, but I assure you she's fine, and as long as she doesn’t get herself get killed again I don't see how anything could go wrong.” there was a pause before she continued. “what we used isn't important, and telling you wont accomplish anything. It's better you just lay off and enjoy things how they are now.”

“I would feel better if I knew” I said coldly. About ready to walk out of the room.

“no Garrus.... you wouldn't” she turned her gaze away back to her console indicating her involvement in the conversation was over. 

So I turned and walked out the door, turned left and walked back to the forward battery.

 

#

 

“Garrus...” ...... “Garrus.....” “VAKARIAN” a familiar voice threw me out of my near inescapable fatigue. I leaned up in it right away, threw my eyes open and looked forward. Her brown-green eyes stared right back at me, piercing through my shell of sorrow and pain and releasing more feelings than I can describe in a short amount of time. “glad you're finally up” she said with a strained smile, clearly still in pain.

Flustered and stumbling for words I said“I uh, aheh... mmm, I.... well, I should be saying that to you... Shepard” I hung onto her name as if relishing in it's significance and the fact she was awake, and that everything was going to be ok.

“mm, yea that’s true.” she said with a pained nod. “but than again, you were out cold.... how long were you here?”

I looked at her, than around the room. I really didn't have a good idea. “a while, lost track of time.” I said apologetically. 

“almost two weeks.” Chakwas exclaimed bursting into the room through the doors. Her omni-tool must of pinged her when Shepard woke up.“and he barely ate a thing, or slept the whole time! Tsk tsk” Chakwas said shaking her head, “understandable, but I would much rather not have both of you in critical condition. So, I picked this up before I came over.”

She handed both of us plates of food, but I wouldn't start eating until Shepard did. It was silent in the room, and after a moment, Chakwas declared “well, you obviously don’t need me at the moment, Garrus, Shepard, if you need something I'm just around the corner. Glad to have you back commander.” and with that she left the room likely returning to where she was before.

“you should eat” I said, trying not to screw up, on what I can't recall, nor did I even think I knew. Without looking away I placed my plate onto the bed behind us. I'll eat it later.

“You know, I don't think I've ever seen a turian tear up before.” she said, staring right at me.

“I huh? oh.” I cleared the tears away, and looked away from Shepard for the first time in days. “Turians... uhh" I cleared my throat "don't cry..... then again, I'm a  _really_  bad turian.” 

There was a long pause and I kept my head down for a few moments. When I raised it again I gently bumped into Shepard who had placed her forehead right where it would bump into mine. Our heads touched, like a soft kiss, and we looked at each other, screaming our feeling through our gaze.We held there for a long while, neither of us wanting to move.

“I... I”  I was struggling to find words. Trembling emotions stealing them away, eventually I managed to get out “I almost lost you. I never should have let you go, let you run off without me, injured or not I should have, I should I...... I'm sorry.” I said with a heavy sorrow as those once final moments surfaced again. She took her hand and cupped the back of my head “you know I'm tough to kill”

“hmm, just don't do that to me again, I need you with me, by my side. I can't handle losing you again.” I said in a soft voice, eyes gazing downwards.

 

#

 

“RRRRRAAAHHHHHH!” *SLAM!* the wall let clanged, echoing in the metal room, mixing with the fading scream. I had slammed my arm against the wall, I let my thoughts and emotions get the better of me. I let them control my actions, again. I cant, CANT, let that happen. People die.

Shepard and EDI were gone, I had turned off the radio in my helmet after the ceaseless demand for a sit-rep aboard the Normandy. I needed quiet, I needed to think and time spent communicating with them, or waiting for backup is time I could be figuring out how to get to Shepard, time she could be slipping away.

 

#

 

“You can't just bludgeon your way through every criminal on the Citadel Garrus, I've taught you this, do it right, or not at all.”

“Whats the point if they just get away, each moment I spend worrying about whether I break one of the countless stupid C-Sec or council rules is another moment that gives the other guy a chance to run!” I replied, in another argument with my father.

“If you stop following the proper procedure, if you abandon these rules, then it makes you no better than who your after!” he barked back.

“But isn't that what it takes? Wouldn't it be better if I actually got the guy? Any damage would be worth it if we just nail his ass. Because that wouldn't be as bad as what they would do if they got away!”

“And what do you think that means Garrus? Just bludgeon through countless innocents, destroy and entire city block just because the one guy you're after happens to be there? So he's done terrible things, there are millions like him and no matter how good you are you cant get them all. So you get them right; without dropping to their level, you need to uphold what you believe in without adopting what you strive to stop.” He lectured.

“Ragh! But whats the point DAD! If I follow the rules most of them get away! Look at what happened to Dr. Saleon last month! I can't let that happen again!” I threw my hands up into the air

“Son, there will come a day where you will understand what I have tried years to instill into you. One day you'll see; you need to focus, get it done, right. You need to look at the details, and you need to be more invested in catching your target than he is invested in getting away. You gather all you need then you take him down quick and right, before he has a chance to react, like using a rifle, quick, efficient, minimal collateral.”

I let out a sigh. “I. Fine. I see your point. I'm just frustrated.”

“stay safe Garrus”

“you know me”

 

#

 

Focus on the details. Details. Details. I turned and looked at the odd claw device that looked like a larger version of the one Shepard ended up outside of after entering the beam back on that day.

“Where did you send her?” I asked out to nothing. I began to look at the details. Try and think of where they could have taken her. The trail ends here, cold. So it's likely they brought them through here and somehow activated it, which brought them... somewhere. 

It's likely that this thing is similar to the conduit from Ilos. Connecting two points in space together like some kind of portal. It's also likely that only the keepers can activate these things, which must be in hidden over countless unknown halls throughout the Citadel. Hmm. Reaper tech.

We needed that Reaper Iff code to get through the Omega 4 relay, the keeper must have something similar that allows them to pass through here. Miranda, project Lazarus must of used some kind of tech similar to how the reapers animate their horror troops. Reaper tech. I shuddered at that thought. 

Maybe that's how it allowed her to pass through. I’m missing something. 

Anderson.

He must of figured how to use it, perhaps he carried a husk corpse or a marauder corpse to get through. Or maybe the beam was just different from these claw things. 

_You're getting side-tracked, focus._

IFF, a key. I need to find something that will activate this and let me through. 

The keeper. 

I took off down the hallway I came through and as fast as I could, made my way back to that Keeper that I killed with my bare hands. I rummaged through it, scanned it. Nothing. No life or energy signatures at all.Then when I tried to pull off it's backpack I noticed the damn thing was fused into the back of the keeper.

What does that tell you? Power. 

As long as the keeper is alive it keeps the backpack powered which allows it to travel through that relay device. 

Hmm, Keepers usually self destruct if you interact with them... well, they don't usually arrive in a horde and abduct people either.... this might work. I took out my omni-blade and got to work.

 

#

 

I walked in front of the relay and stood there, bloody chunk of keeper meat oozing onto the floor with the backpack still attached. I took out my omni-tool and set it to stun. I pressed it to the meaty chunk and it sent an charge through the meat and into the backpack. After a moment the relay-claw in front of me flashed to life and a blue energy ball emanated in the middle of it.

“Right behind you Shepard” I said, then I straightened up and walked right into the relay. Flash of bright light, blind. Then darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like the second chapter I took the time to refine and edit a little, so if you've read this far, thank you, im sorry, and I really hope your enjoying it, the more positive or constructive comments the better! XD
> 
> Guesses as where they went? post in the comments. interactiveness! Feedback!
> 
> thanks again for reading.


	10. Blood on the floor

An intense blast of light blinded me as I moved through the portal; along with the light was a very loud noise similar to moving through relays only twice as deafening. With no hull of a ship or anything to dampen the noise it rang through my helmet and lasted until the blinding light faded away leaving a ringing sound in my ears.

I was suddenly standing in a different room than what I was just in. I was still a little dazed from the blinding light and noise and had to shake my head hard to get back my focus. I took a look around, this room was larger than the one before, and there were several other claw-relays in the room, I had emerged through the largest one which was in the centre of the room. It took me a moment to register that I was still holding the chunk of keeper in my right hand. I had been clenching it so hard that I had dug my claws knuckle deep into the hunk of meat. Blood was still leaking out, oozing onto my armour and snaking its way to my boot. It was beginning to smelled like electrified rotting flesh. I shook my hand out of it and tossed it on the floor.

That’s when I noticed that there was dry blood trails leading out from several of the other portals. Noticeable dried out blood trails where the keepers must of dragged countless corpses through here for... whatever reason, I didn't know. I couldn't stop my mind from racing through all the connections and thinking up a whole slew of nightmare scenarios. The worst thought of them all being as much horror and despair and near death moments I've experienced in these past few years; to the point where I entertained the idea that I've seen the worst if it. There was always the dreaded thought that there was always something worse that I could come across. To think that all the victims that painted the floor here and Shepard were likely connected sent my stomach turning.

Before I got any closer to blind delirium I took a few deep breaths, like when I'm about to take a shot from a distance. I scanned the area with my helmet, nothing but more hallways and what I would guess at more rooms than the one I was currently in. Below my position were very large heat signatures, perhaps giant food vats, or likely something worse. I must of been near the top of whatever structure I was in because there only about 5 floors above the one I was on. Aside from the layout I was also tracking well over 100 targets within 200 Meters, all clearly keepers. I looked around at the holo data my helmet was giving off and none of the signatures looked like a mass of keepers hauling Shepard and EDI off. Where ever they were now, they were just too far away. Pushing back another twitch of panic I started walking; I made my way out of the room and down the hall. Every second corner or so I would have to hide behind a support strut or into another hallway as a group of keepers would go walking past the halls just ahead of me.

_Damn sol, sure wish I had that cloaking device of yours... hell, could even use Shepard's... but she never shares...hmm._

With that pang of sorrow came an even stronger feeling; anger at even considering the hopelessness of the situation, I didn't care what the black and white of the situation was telling me, none of it matters. If I'm going to find Shepard, and EDI, I'm going to have to deal with all the grey. I'm just going to have to embrace it and hope I come out on the other end with all of us alive. 

_Just need to keep moving, cant lose hope. I'll find them, I'll bring her, them back._

My helmet was pinging targets coming down the hall behind me, I turned the next corner and there were more keepers ahead of me, doubling back would put me up against the other ones, I was out of any sort of thermal clip, and I had the best chance of success if they didn't know I was here... though the keeper meat back in that first room would seem kind of obvious. 

 _Hell, how smart are keepers to start?_  

Either way I had no time to ponder it, I was 15 seconds away from confrontation. I quickly looked around and spotted a vent system a few feet away from me. It seemed large enough to heft myself and my armour through, but I still cursed.

_I hate vents._

I made my way into the vent, replacing the cover behind me, not two seconds later those keepers marched past, for moments I held my breath and could hear nothing but the fast beating of my heart and the patter of their limbs marching across the cold dark metal. A few moments after they past by I began crawling further down the vent, cursing under my breath about heavy armour and tight spaces. I kept moving until I ended up at a fork. I stopped and tried to get my bearings through my helmet's sensors. I was over an open space, but before I got a good look I felt the vent give a little. It only took a few seconds for the metal to start screaming under my weight. Before I could start moving again a section gave way and I tumbled out backwards and out.

I was free falling, any attempts to catch anything were met with thin air. I let out a small surprised gasp as I resigned myself to gravity. I was spinning through the air one moment I could see the trashed vent, the next, I could see the metal floor below me. Things flashed before me.

 

#

 

“Who's is this?” my father demanded at both my sister and I.

“What did I tell you about this kind of stuff?” we both stood straight with our back against the wall.

“Well, either one of you honours up or you'll both be dealt with” he demanded, I looked down for a moment, flashes of choice between honour and honesty, loyalty and strength.

“It's mine Sir... I.... found it, fixed it. Sol didn’t even know” I stated keeping my stare straight and trying my best to look sincere; though I still caught my sisters surprised sidewards glance at my lie for her.

Our father looked at us for a long moment, it felt like if I let a breath out I would also let the truth escape. I was gonna say something else but Solana gave out “I can't let you do that Garrus....I'm sorr-..... I ...err, we happened upon it. Before we both headed back I snuck it into my pocket, Garrus is simply covering for me father; but I can't let him take the blame for me. Just... It was something I wanted. I-”

“Solana” my father interrupted. I was hurting from Sol exposing my lie and taking her own blame, but I also understood how tht improved both our standings in the situation. It would be very barefaced of her to allow me to take all the blame. The only issue now being neither of us knew what he would do. We bowed our heads and averted our eyes prepared for the worst.

“father....sir” she replied, perking straight up at attention..

There was a long pause before he turned a switch on the device and half his arm disappeared behind a cloak. “I don't think the enemy would be fooled by just a pair of legs walking around do you?”

My father gave us both a look equivalent to a stern smile, it's all in the eyes with turians. Sol let out a shocked gasp, holding back a laugh at the image of legs walking around.

“You need a larger harmonic booster, you're bigger than a drone now Solana. I want this perfected by 2500 tomorrow or I'm keeping it. Understood?”

Both sol and I said “yes father” and took the device and got to work.

running away, giggling at each other.

 

#

 

“Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian...”

 

_#_

 

_Breaking news, word of the destruction of Normandy SR1 in the Omega cluster and the death of hero of the battle of the Citadel Commander Shepard has generated a surprised and angry response across many groups extra guards have been posted around the Citadel tower as many citizens have begun violent protests---”_

“I-- no.” I couldn't breath. This couldn't be real. Nothing felt real.

Shepard. 

 

_#_

 

_“Oh... didn't know you had a weakness for men with scars...”_

 

_#_

 

_“So much has gone wrong Shepard...”_

 

_#_

 

“I....Love you too...”

 

#

 

I saw the floor rush at me and a moment before impact I closed my eyes and said “I'm sorry Shepard”.

***CRACK!***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was meant to be longer, but I decided to leave it a another great opportunity for a cliffhanger. you may as well consider chapter 10-11 one chapter I guess, because that was the original plan.


	11. Her Lifeless Corpse

I regained consciousness a few seconds after impact and was immediately assailed by pain. My whole body screamed at me and I cringed as I tried to tough it out and concentrate. I had broken through the floor, and into some kind of liquid. One of the vats I had scanned earlier most likely, my visor was cracked and it was pouring into my helmet threatening to drown me. That snapped my attention away from the pain and I went from disoriented panic to survival mode.

I was only able to grab a half breath before my helmet was completely filled with the liquid, I clawed out, blind feeling for anything to grab onto. 

 _Less movement is more time, calm and cool keeps you around longer._  I thought to myself.

I stopped struggling for a hold and stopped moving for a minute. I waiting to get a sense of direction from how I was sinking. Completely still, with my lungs protesting at me for holding my breath and my mind racing about drowning I held completely still, waiting. I felt it after a moment, that subtle inertia, and I felt the blood in my body flow to my head.

_I was upside down._

_Just like Shepard showed me, kick and push, simple._

With my arms I pulled out at oozing nothingness and tried to orient myself right side up. My lungs were starting to scream and I was starting to shake from the shock. I pushed the intense pain behind me and just concentrated on one thing. 

Swimming up.

Unlike the water of the beaches back on earth, this stuff was thicker, and I was able to pull myself up what felt like half my body length each pull and kick. As time passed the convulsions of my lungs started to fade and I could see shapes in front of my closed eyes. I starting to go lightheaded and the panic began to subside, everything was starting to go calm, i could no longer hear myself, or the liquid as I swam upwards, everything just phased out. I kept pushing I knew i was only seconds away from drowning, but even that didn't seem to phase me. I moved almost autonomously through the sludge, and thought about dying; what hurt more then the thought of dying, was that I would have failed her. That despite all I do to try and keep her safe, she'd be killed, or tortured, or something unimaginable, in a place no one can find and with nothing I could do to stop it.

_Because I couldn't swim._

I pressed even harder for the top, fury of ANYONE trying to touch her driving me even faster. I could feel myself waking up and I opened my eyes, blind and enraged. I didn’t even think I had any breath left, but it no longer felt like it mattered. I felt almost past the need for air, the need to breath, my focus came back, and my fury was double that. Mere moments later my hand slammed onto the metal roof of the large vat and I pressed my face up close to it, desperate for some air. There was none to be had and unless I found the whole I punched through I would die.

Rrrrraaahhhhhh!!! “Rrraaaaaahhhhh!” I screamed slamming my arm against the metal roof losing precious breath; the last of my air escaping and sliding up past my face, rubbing upwards across my cheek like the last touch of life moving away. In a reflex to breath I involuntarily inhaled the liquid, taste making me gag as i pulled into convulsions and final moments.

My beating against the ceiling slowed and I reached out one last time with the last bit of life left in me.

And I grabbed onto an edge.

I blacked out for a moment, but the next thing I remember is falling onto dry cold metal ground after I must have hauled myself out with strength I didn’t have. It was in my eyes and in my lungs and I spent several very unpleasant moments coughing it up. Taste in my mouth like poison, with every fibre of my being refusing it. From coughing it up to throwing up, to only getting just enough air with each struggling breath to keep coughing. With a wheeze I finally took in a clean breath, lungs still shouting in pain. Then I let myself fall to my side and I just lay there, feeling weaker than I can ever remember feeling.

A few moments passed before I was taking in fuller breath and I noticed the right side of my chest was still screaming in pain, I had cast my helmet off to the side right after I woke from that blackout, and I just looked down and I saw my armour was heavily dented inwards, with a long crack in the middle. The armour was crushing the right side of my chest and that's when i also realized part of it had splintered and punctured through my chest and into my right lung.

_Huh... Fantastic._

Still a little dazed I tapped at my omni-tool and the clamps to my upper suit came loose and the left side fell off and clamoured onto the ground. On the right side I could see the metal piercing through my shirt and into my chest. I was on my knees and cringed as it started to gouge further downwards as it was no longer supported by anything. Before it could do anymore I pulled it out slowly, wincing and flinching in pain as it came free. It fell to the ground and I saw saw that along with the piece of metal piercing my lung, there was also an oxygen tube from within the suit. It used to feed to the plasma cutter on my omni-tool but by sheer dumb luck it had punctured into my lung and kept me from drowning for a few moments longer, and I needed every moment I had. The pain was incredible and I wheezed as my lung collapsed. I grimaced as the feeling of choking returned.

Feeling really broken, really damn old, and in a lot of pain, I pulled medi-gel from the suit and applied it to the puncture wound, which sealed it. I took in a breath and felt as my lung filled itself again. The medi-gel numbed the pain and the delirium from the events that just happened began to subside; and I just... sat there, as if I forgot why I was even here in the first place, or like it was already too late. That thought hit me like a dagger, and I had no sedative for sorrow on me, but I guess the pain was a welcome reminder. I was still alive. I could still fight.

With a pained heave I hauled my thrashed armour over and layed it against a wall. With my omni-tool's mini-fabricator I got to work. Removing the bloody sliver of metal that pierced my lung, and then using mass effect fields from the suit's shields to apply enough force to bend the armour back into place. I then took the block out of my gun and used some it along with the mini-fabricator to replace the piece of armour that splintered. It was pretty patchwork but 5 minutes and I was done, and my suit was good to go.

I rebooted the suit computer and I could feel as it reapplied a more effective seal on my wound.

_Spirits I hope that holds._

The numbing feeling was like an answered prayer, but it wasn't enough to entirely block out the pain.

Putting the suit back on wasn't the greatest feeling, my bones began to ache, the impact from the fall began weighing in. And along with that my puncture wound protested the snug fit even through the numbing. Regardless I was good to go and I walked over to my helmet and picked it up. It was cracked in half in the front, the visor split in two and the internal computer was dead. I had gotten this helmet from EDI who requisitioned it from Sur'kesh's special projects division. It was a prototype, able to see through walls, track multiple targets and provide optimum firing solutions and a much better sound system than what my visor feeds through my headset. It was my best chance of spotting Shepard, or EDI through the walls of this place.

_Shit._

With no knowledge of where I was, when a keeper would round a corner, or where they took EDI and Shepard. My chances of getting out of here were quickly becoming nothing but a dream. I took a deep breath, which didn’t hurt too much, and let it out in a long sigh. My nose complained about that horrible stench and I looked over to the me-sized hole in the floor. Gathering in information about my surroundings I looked at the liquid. It reminded me of the smell on the streets of Palaven right after the war.  _So many dead..._  in which you how many were buried in rubble. That's what this liquid smelled like, death, and rot. I had fallen into a vat of countless people who had been reduced to a simple paste, perhaps to be sent off elsewhere, maybe even the collector base, to be used in the construction of a reaper.

_Damn am I glad we shut that down._

I had already gotten most of it off of me, but there was still enough on me to make me want to pull off my armour again and get it all off. I swallowed that thought, there just wasn’t any time for that, there were more important things to do. I looked around, it was a rather large room, like a giant warehouse thousands of feet long to house multiple vats. This place must be bigger than i first thought.

It had several large round tanks in rows which carried down all the way to the end, with floor a little higher than the covers, creating large round circles in it's floor. It would probably take the entire population of all the council home worlds to fill not even half of this place. I shuttered to think how many times the reapers were able to fill these tanks through the millennia.

_Why the hell do they want to take Shepard? Why alive? What is this place?_

From where I first came in through the relay, there were only a couple floors above me, with this giant room below, I would still place-myself near the top of the building. There was gravity everywhere, about that of Earths, or Palaven. But whether or not I was on a planet, in some hidden system, or in a massive station between systems I had no idea. That lack of information was incredibly frustrating; with each passing moment potentially meaning they could be doing something to Shepard, or EDI. Torturing them, killing them, I had to find them and fast, this whole place was another nightmare and they were knee deep into it and I had no way of knowing how I would get them out. The only detail that made me they believe were still alive was how they were taken. If the keepers wanted her dead, they could of just killed her back on the Citadel. They lost of lot of keepers swarming us and taking them alive. Had those been husks, or marauders, we'd be dead.

 _Well... after a more than reasonable kill count of course._  

_So spirits be with me she's still alive and I can still get to her, kicking keeper ass on the way there and on the way out. Maybe even blow up a few things, we'll see._

 

_#_

 

I didn’t see anything in the floors above me back when I first came here. So I guessed that in order to find anything, I would have to head downwards. Though, maybe a little less direct than falling 80 feet. With my heading decided I headed for the first available exit out of the massive vats room. It only took a few minutes for the puncture in my lung to become uncomfortable. Felt like someone stuck a pen in my chest that moved every time I inhaled or exhaled. 

_Damn it... This medi-gel isnt gonna hold if I keep moving. But I need to keep going._

If I kept walking without addressing it, I would eventually drop dead. Something that felt like a strong possibility at any moment.

Regardless of the cheerful possibilities I pressed on. There were no stairs in this entire building, everything was ramped for the keepers. This was annoying because that means in order to go down all the way down to whatever would be in the lower parts of this place, I would have to travel almost three times as far. Nine or ten flights down breathing became really uncomfortable. A couple times I would start wheezing with each breath until I felt my suit apply more medi-gel to my wound. Once it sealed again I would start breathing normally. If I kept this up I would run out of medi-gel, and that would be bad. On the bright side, no keepers yet. On the downside, no keepers probably means Shepard and EDI aren’t very close. I wouldn't last much longer unless I dealt with my wound in a more permanent manner.

I remembered there was a small med-kit hidden in the but-stock of my rifle, something the turian military instills in you to keep around on the good chance you'll stop getting actual medical supplies. 

This was going to be in no way pleasant. But I had to do it.

 

#

 

Sewing needle. 

1 foot of stitches. 

Half shot of turian brandy, cheap kind. 

Knife.

I found a room on one of the lower floors, filled with miscellaneous furniture from the Citadel; with no time to questions the implications I moved stuff around and set up a little work area. I dreaded what I had to do, but I also knew it was the only long-term fix. Right now it was my only chance; I started by removing my suit, placing it to the side. I pulled off my shirt exposing the wound for the first time. It was soaked in dark-blue medi-gel paste, my blood discolouring the seal. It looked a hell of a lot worse than it felt, and it hurt a lot, nothing compared to how much it was about to hurt. 

Any other time and I would be checking into the med-bay. There was a mirror in the room that I found and I set it up opposite me. I cleaned away the medi-gel-blood combo leaving the wound fully exposed. Through the mirror I could see my lung -still sealed with fresh medi-gel- expanding and contracting with each breath. It was a little unsettling and I had more than one thought to just re-patch it and keep going, but i knew that wouldn't work. I knew what I had to do.

_Inhale.... Exhale.... Inhale..... Exhale..... inhale......_

As quick as I could and using the mirror I took the needle with the stitches and pushed into the puncture wound, anaesthetized by the medi-gel or not digging into the wound was met was an almost unbearable pain. It was so intense I felt like I could pass out, getting shot was far less painful than this. A pained groan escaped me and I was trying to hold as steady as possible so I could stitch it cleanly. I had to work through the wound, and stop my lung from twitching inwards in an attempt to escape the needle by holding my breath. Working between my ribs didn't give me a whole lot of space and I had to really dig through the wound. 

I was practically delirious. Pierce, through, pull. 

I was writhing in pain. Pierce, through, pull. 

The needle fell from my hand, which was shaking really hard; I was shaking really hard. I took my other hand, popped the shot of brandy, tossed the bottle then got back to work. Hands were still shaking, did my best to steady them. 

Pierce, through, pull. I let out a long wheeze, able to hold my breath no longer, it pulled the stitch in through my chest then popped back out, but it held. 

Pierce, through, pull. I was almost done. 

Pierce, through, pull. Almost... pierce, through, pull. 

Done... Pierce, through, pull. 

Exhausted, I tied it off and cut the end of the stitch, then applied medi-gel over top sealing it again. I took a few cautious breaths and the pain on my lungs subsided. The stitch had worked.

Good, I'm half done. 

Now the skin.

 

#

 

My lung was patched, my skin was now freshly patched and I was more or less good to go. I didn’t sit still long, no more sitting dazed, no more feeling lost, or hopeless. I'm getting them back even if it kills me and I'm damn hard to kill.

_After that experience im damn sure of it_

Just a few meters into walking again and I knew all that pain was worth it; as excruciating as it was, walking was almost normal again. Instead of every step sending pain through, it now just felt like a really weird scab; all tight around the edges. It was comforting in an uncomfortable way and I was able to move at a faster pace.

 

#

 

I got to a hallway that led away from the ramp, which kept going downwards even farther. I must of have already gone down a few hundred feet but something about this hallway told me this is where I needed to go. Like some kind of instinct, I quickly decided this was my floor, I had already passed several other almost identical hallways but this was the one.

_I could feel it._

Still there were no keepers, and I had been moving through for a while; that feeling of something is wrong started seriously creeping up my spine again. Moving past the doors I was wound up, ready to strike at anything. I was feeling fairly paranoid to the point where I could hear my ears ring.. The further I went the more seemingly paranoid I became. I couldn’t quite make it out, but there was some kind of hum that was getting louder the farther down this hall I went; and with each step I felt I had to start moving faster.

I became so blindly focused on this, I wasn’t even concerned about the lack of any keepers anymore. I actually felt like I just... understood. I turned around a corner and the feeling was even stronger at the far end of the hall were an old set of doors. Really old ones, before they all became automated Emanating through the cracks between these doors was light, Lots of light. My visor wasn’t picking up anything. But the visor was wrong, it had to be. She was behind this door. It's what I just knew. She was behind this door. I need to open the door.

We can go home now, everything will be OK.

_Damn this ringing in my ears, I can't hear where that hum is coming from._

 

#

 

I woke up to the sun shining right into my eyes, the blinds were open, which means Shepard was up. She always sleeps in the dark. Outside you could see the tree's under the balcony and the ocean touch the horizon just beyond them. The sun was just above that and it shined all the way through and into the windows. I thought it kind of odd that Shepard was up before me, but I guess there will always be days where i'll just sleep in past my normal. Guess that’s just what happens to old soldiers like me after a war. Sleep stops being so light, and it takes just a bit more to wake you up each day.

I got out of bed, still wearing my pants, but no shirt. I walked over to the chair where I always toss it; but it wasn’t there. It was over in the closet. I don’t remember putting it there, and it's not usually Shepard's thing to pick up after me like that. Unless it's in her way, but we're good at avoiding that.

_I know! There must be something special happening today. Today must be a special day._

I racked my mind for what it could be, my birthday was still a few weeks away, it wasn't even close to her birthday. Our anniversary is on the same day we hit the collector base, and we decided that it's also on that day we went to shoot bottles. That way we can celebrate twice a year. But when people ask how long we've been together we always go for the longer date. It's funny how much you can communicate without words when you've been together as long as we have. Sure, it's not as long as most other people, but we're special.

I walked over to the kitchen, which was also connected to the living room. Shepard wasn’t here either. If she was going somewhere, she would leave a message on her data pad. I walked over to the counter it was lying on and i picked it up.

“ i am a **W** ay for  **A** while, i'll be bac **K**  later on. if you're hungry i made som **E**  food. I probably bUrnt it though. i'll probably bring back some sup **P** er or something, see you then!” - shep

huh, odd message, it was riddled with errors, and Shepard triple checks her emails before sending the.. I'll have to ask about it when she gets back. I can't wait to see her, feels like it's been awhile, which is silly. Im just glad I don’t have to worry... well, as much. I took the datapad and looked it. Some notes, calendar – which was blank. Last I saw it, it was filled outside of our holiday. Guess she just decided to clear it. 

Wait. 

Like waking up over again I switched back to the note and looked at all the bolded letters.

WAKE UP

What the hell does that mean? I was up, i  _AM_  up. My vision got blurry and light started shining through the front door. It was an old door, one you had to open by hand. I was starting to get some kind of oily tunnel vision that worsened when i looked at the source of light. I felt this powerful desire to stay where I was a singular thought and it wanted me to wait here. But something else, something deeper inside me told me not to listen, and told me the door was the way out. 

_But I should just head back to bed, or wait for Shepard. But I need to open that door._

I need to open that door.

I walked up to the door and grabbed the handle, it was cold, I don’t remember the last time I had to use a door like this. I tried pushing it, and it wouldn’t budge. Then I gave it one good pull and it yanked open and I was blinded by a light, I couldn’t see where it was coming from and the whispers started screaming like a crowd of familiar voices all at once. Saying things like:

_“...wake up...”_

_“...just come home...”_

_“...i'll be looking down...”_

_“...never be alone...”_

_“...you always say that G, but you know you never can...”_

_then they all stopped for a split second then returned joined by hundreds of voices both organic and synthetic all at once:_

_“SHE IS MINE!”_

 

_#_

 

Next thing I knew I was on my knees, one hand on the floor, the other to my head. A sudden and intense migraine threatening to split my head in half. Each throb was like glass shifting back and forth. I grimaced and forced myself to stand up. I was in a lit room, lights seemingly through the walls, with no obvious source. I turned to look behind me, that old door I remembered was now an automated bulkhead, dark and the only thing other than the floor not producing light. I took deep breaths, fighting through the pain. I staggered over to a wall and placed a hand on it. The light reacted to my touch and the light under my hand faded. Under it was old and rusted metal, an older part of the structure. I turned to watch as it spread around the whole room, swallowing the light and revealing the room behind it. Rusted rivets were holding the walls up and the room gave the feeling that whoever used this room existed long ago. That it's been a long time since any keeper has been here to maintain the place. As the last of the light faded away I found myself facing the bulkhead door again. The migraine and the shadows dissipated quickly after the light disappeared. There was still enough light in the room to cast my shadow onto the door. To the left of my shadow was another. A very familiar shadow that stood just past shoulder height to mine. The curves of it's body elongated by the awkward cast of the light. I've seen this shadow many times before, I would recognize who it belonged to any day.

It was Shepard's.

I spun around to find the wall opposite the door was actually a window. I turned around again and her shadow was gone. Looking back at the window it was a glass pane into another room. This room was lit by the same lights that lit the way in every hallway I’ve been through since the relay. It cast down on her figure shining light to the restraints that kept her in place. I walked up to the glass and without a word pressed my hands on the window, looking into the room. She was lying on the floor and she was motionless. 

_How the hell did I see her shadow?_

I walked up and bumped on the window with my right hand and said “Shepard!” she didn’t move, I continued to hit the window and call out her name, each time louder and harder than the next. I became frantic I couldn't see her breathing, she wasn't moving. She almost seemed lifeless. I began to scream out, long, drawn out and furious screams; trying my hardest to break through the window. Then, the doors in the room opened and keepers walked in. They ignored my screams and my attempts to get into the room. The two keepers simply walked on either side and dragged her lifeless body along the floor. My visor could barely pick up a heart beat; It was faint but there as I watched her disappear from view, head, body, legs, feet. The door closed and the light in the room turned off. I stopped yelling and headed for the door as fast as I could.

Out into the hall I took the first turn and tried to get to the other side where they left as fast as I could. But this place quickly turned into a maze it wasn't long before I knew I had lost them again. Seconds turned into minutes and time past a point where my heart stopped racing and each hallway or corner became more hopeless. Still I kept moving and what felt like hours later  _–though likely no longer than an hour--_  I finally found a door that looked like the same one they took Shepard through. A quick hack later the door opened and revealed something entirely different.

 

#

 

There was no light in this room, the only light shined from the halls and my shadow cast a veil over a slumped metallic body. It just lay there carelessly tossed onto a pile of other stuff I couldn't make out. It was EDI, her lifeless corpse sent my mind racing again. I hesitated for a second, it was EDI, but Shepard was also getting farther away. Any time I spent dealing with EDI was time they could be doing something to Shepard. I had a mind to just try and remember this spot and try and come back to it later after I find Shepard again. But I also knew that I know where EDI is now, and I had no idea where Shepard was anymore; and I could really use some help.

 

#

 

I picked her up and carried her in my arms back out into the hall. I layed her against the wall and ran diagnostics on my omni-tool. She had dents and scratches all over her but there wasn't any obvious damage that would.... render her offline. EDI was still in the Normandy mainly and it was hard to remember that sometimes. Far as I knew her bot was controlled remotely and right now the Normandy is still at the Citadel. Maybe she shut the bot shut off after going through the relay. She was able to restart the bot after Shepard's clone shut her off. But she must have still been able to send a signal to automatically activate it. She must not of had the chance to do that, or perhaps the keepers disabled her when she shut off before she could reactivate herself.

It didn’t matter, this seemed simple enough. Except I have no idea how to re-activate her bot. All my work re-activating her was in the AI core and when she finally started to work again she turned on the bot herself. Yea, she attacked me afterwards and almost killed everyone, but her body was her doing. 

_Damn I wish I had a manual or something right now._

Puzzled, I just kept staring at her, kneeling on one knee beside her and thinking....

_If her bots off it means She can't reach it. Which means we could be entire systems away from the Normandy. Even if I got her bot turned on she wouldn't be able to contact...herself. Contact.. she uses tightbeam signals to be in control of her bot..._

  _Tight beam signal. That's it!_

I took off my visor and connected it to my omni-tool. My visor uses a form of tight-beams to gather some information about my surroundings. If I could just plug it in, and reverse it and send the right signal her body should turn on. A few taps later I let it run through all the various frequencies. You could hear it buzzing in my earpiece as white noise for awhile then it stopped. The frequency moved out of the range of the radio-piece and into what I could only guess as what she uses to communicate data to the bot. Finally after several eerily silent moments she jolted to life and her orange visor flickered to life. Right afterwards her eyes opened and she quickly pushed herself upright and looked around rapidly scanning the area for enemies, letting out a surprised “ah!” as she did. 

It was as if the last thing she must of been doing before she was shut off by the keepers. She turned to look at me her face adjusting into multiple expressions as she most likely was running a systems check on herself. A moment later she said “Where is Shepard?”. 

My shoulders dropped and my mandibles twitched with regret. “...I don’t know yet... but she's still alive and were gonna find her and get her out.” I said.

EDI had a really scrunched look like she was really uncomfortable about something. “We are not near the Normandy. I don’t... Feel.... as much, I do NOT like it. And I cannot locate or communicate with the crew. Though... I am still functional.”

“So.. your... you on the Normandy and in the bot?” I asked. Raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. It would be safe to assume I am active in this bot and on the Normandy separately. Though like when I was de-activated by Shepard's clone, being limited to this bot severely affects my abilities to perform.” she said that with a dry tone, as if she was severely annoyed at her situation.

“so... you're not in contact with the Normandy?” my hopes fading.

“No I am not, and I don’t know what to expect when I reconnect with.... myself. I have never been active in two places at once without contact." She said.

“hmm. Im sure it will be no different than when you reconnected with yourself last time.” I offered.

“No, last time I could still maintain connection with myself even though all primary functions were placed offline, I was blind, not separate. This is different. I am effectively in two places at once.”

“Right... before we figure it out there's someone we need to save.” I offered my arm and she took it as I hauled her onto her feet she replied “yes, there are more important things right now. We must retrieve Shepard from the keepers.”

I looked down for a moment, silent. Then I replaced my visor back onto my head while I looked up again, right at EDI. Cold fury burning behind my eyes. “And were gonna make each and everyone of those little bastards pay.”

 


	12. Off The Map

Something deep in the depths of my mind bothered me. Aside from all the obvious going on there was something, a detail not quite there, but I cant remember what it is. There’s a gap, and all the details, everything, is screaming at me to pay attention. What is it? There's something, I know it's there, I can feel it.

“Everything all right Garrus? EDI asked from beside me as we were walking down another hallway. She had been watching me from my side for some time now, but I wasn't paying attention to that. I was too wrapped in my own thoughts, hell I wasn't even paying much attention to where we were going. Just picking a route and walking.

“huh? oh... hmm....” I responded, so deep in my thoughts that I almost forgot the fact she even asked anything.

“Judging by your response, there is something on your mind. Something that allowed us to pass through this hall way for a second time.” she replied, inflecting a tone that suggested I stop for a moment and pay attention.

I stopped walking, and she turned back to look at me and stopped walking herself. My mandible twitched as it does when I am thinking hard about something. I was staring right at her and her back at me, but nothing was in detail, my mind was focused on something else, my eyes didn’t bother with the fine curves of her bot or the rough edges of the hallway we were in, instead everything was hazy, out of focus. We both held there for a moment before I closed my eyes, bent my head and shook it. I placed a hand on my forehead searching for a detail that wasn’t there but was essential regardless.

What it is? I remember everything but my mind is telling me I'm missing something; like a memory hidden from view with with enough neural connections around it for you to know its still there. Like it was removed.

“I... there’s... something, that’s been on my mind.” I said, my racing mind preventing me from clearly getting that out into the physical world.

“That much seems apparent. Perhaps I could assist?” EDI offered. As she straightened her shoulders and cusped her hands behind her back.

“hmm, wish you could help. But I can't remember what it is, I know... I know it's there, it's there. And it's essential. I know that much, I do, I just... Hmm.” my mandible twitches again and I shrugged my shoulders at her. “I just don’t know what it is.”

EDI was silent for a moment, but in the moment she must have run thousands of scenario's. Though nothing compared to what she could do if she was... her, on the ship... but way more than any organic. Finally after that moment she looked right at me with a slight tilt of her head and she said.

“you are indoctrinated.”

That word ran out of her mouth like a dagger through a window. It shattered away everything and it sent my mind in motion. Horror and panic, and clarity. I didn't remember everything, only thought I had. And that was the thing, that was the detail. I had found Shepard, I had found EDI but it had all happened too fast. Anyone in their right mind would of realized how impossible it all was. I could feel myself shaking, whether it showed through my armour I didn’t know. I had found Shepard I remember that, and I remember they took her. But everything before that room. That room with the... damn it! What was it. The.... and how the hell did I get there? My mind burned running through multiple scenarios and asking all the questions that just set me even further into analyzing that shadow in my mind.

Indoctrination.

That word held on the forefront of my thoughts like a dark shadow beckoning answers. The room, Shepard, but before that. Walking, then... the room... and Shepard. I heard a whisper outside my ear and I turned to look but nothing was there. EDI gave me a look, tilting her head and analyzing me in silence. Finally again I heard it and it was clear this time and the block from my mind released itself and memories rushed in like wave silencing all my other thoughts. “SSSHHHEEEE ISSSSSS MMMMIIINNNEEEEE” it hissed. The hallway—the obsession---the house—home---the datapad---the light---that room—Shepard, it all rushed into place. It -and it was an it, it was a force, a physical thing- and it was in my head. It wanted, had her. And it had guided me to her, forced me there. To watch, helpless. Again it repeated itself louder, a scream, but still a whisper. “SSSSSSHHHHHEEEE IIIISSSSSSSSS MMMMMMMMMMIIIIINNNEEEEE!”. I blinked and looked at EDI, clearly now and my eyes could catch every detail. She straightened her head, noticing my instant change in awareness.

“I can hear it.” I said, the blood rushed away and a feeling of cold washed over me. Darkness encroached in my peripherals for a moment then my eyes cleared. And I was aware. It was with me and I knew. It could watch listen and hear to everything that I could see, it was using me to keep her away. It had led me to her and carried her away right in front of me. And now she was far gone again and it was in control. It wanted me to know that. An initial feeling of panic was eradicated by a sudden feeling of steel calmness.

“Your right.” I said.

EDI was silent for a moment.

“That is not ideal, it limits how long our search will remain effective” she said, I thought I could almost hear concern in her voice.

“Your right. Hmm... how long do I have?” I asked. I know being a mindless slave wouldn’t be effective in getting out of here. I figured EDI knew more about it than I could at this moment. And I felt strangely calm about it, almost indifferent.

“The indoctrination process is slow, usually it takes weeks, or months to subvert ones willpower and produce an effective indoctrinated agent. We have only been here for... a few hours plus the time I was inactive.”

“It feels a lot faster than that EDI, until a moment ago I didn’t even remember how I found my way to Shepard, and from her to you. Though I know it led me there, and it was damn convincing.” I was annoyed at myself, even if I was powerless to stop it, it was infuriating how ironic it was to be indoctrinated after the reapers were destroyed. Or well, at least right in the middle of becoming indoctrinated. And for all I know this thing could be the grand reaper, bigger than harbinger. The self-awareness and the lack of information of it all made me sick.

“The process could be sped up to just a few days, or even a couple of hours. There are many factors involved the most important being ones willpower. But increasing the speed in which one is indoctrinated simply renders them inert. You will go mad from the presence, and you will enter a catatonic state, or go insane.” she was going to finish with that, but quickly added “Though there is a possibility you will be able to resist the effects long enough for us to escape.”

“Fantastic” I said dryly. The odds weighed on me but it didn’t stop me from still having hope. I've been through so many hopeless situations with Shepard and we always came out on top. I had to keep believing this wouldn’t be any different. _I wish we had a little more help than this._

“well, there’s nothing we could do about that now, let's focus on what we can do.” _I just need to push forward... for as long as I can._

EDI and I took a moment to figure out where we were going. We agreed to head for the edge, an edge of this place and try and get an idea of where we were. Perhaps we could link up to a transmitter and sent out a signal for help and maybe even figure a way for some back-up.

“So EDI... thoughts on the other you? What do you think _you_ would be doing right now?” I asked, trying to fill the silence with something other than the increasing whispers in my mind.

“I would have already informed the crew of the situation, knowledge that this unit has left the range of the Normandy would conclude that the keepers have taken Shepard and I through a relay. It would also be safe to assume that you would have followed. The crew would search for our last known location and send help through the relay.”

“that might be a problem, it's coded to keepers. Unless they find a friendly one.”

“then how did you make it through the relay?”

I gave her a look out of the corner of my visor. “I have my ways”

she raised an eyebrow for a second then she turned her head forward again and said “That explains the state of your armour. There is a above average amount of blood on it.”

I looked down at my armour, there was still dried keeper blood painted down my right side, and there were stains of paste from the vat I fell into, along with my own blood around the patch I had to make in my armour, behind which the wound must have been bleeding a lot before the medi-gel sealed it. And my gloves were soaked in blue blood as well from when I had to patch myself up. I was a mess.

“hmm. I had a rough morning. Though not as bad as that keeper.” I said casually.

Dry humour aside we both knew we couldn’t count on getting any backup. Not unless we could contact someone.

#

we made our way to the end of the structure, or rather _an_ end of the structure. The whispers were getting worse, they would pipe up every time we hit a fork in the road, they would try and tell me where to go, along with the usual whispering of ideas and memories from my past. The whispers were trying to break me down, but I was able to ignore them and keep moving, at least for the moment. We got to an edge, the corners and rooms stopped and instead there was a long hallway that stretched out to what I would guess as the perimeter of this place. Along with that, the far wall had a large shutter that was pulled down. There was a terminal, EDI went to look at it while I turned on some music on my visor, Expel 10 - The end is now the start – album. --something they released a few months after the reaper war to raise money for reconstruction efforts-- They had a couple good songs that I listen to on occasion when I need to draw attention away from things, like the whispering. I figured I could do without hearing them for a while and so I drowned them out and cranked up the volume. Right before it got to the drop and crescendo of the song EDI finally opened the shutters. Like out of a vid the music fit the scene that I saw, I had to put my hands on the railing in front of me to steady myself.

Out there, in front of me... was the milky way Galaxy. We were in dark space. Like straight out of the galaxy map on the CIC to the real damn thing. It had more colour and more life to it than any holo could ever provide. Everything I knew, my entire life, all life that I knew, was right in front of me. The realization of where I- where we were, hit me with a strong sense of vertigo. Dark space. Damn, we must be out where the reapers wait for the next cycle. This building this, station in dark space must be the other end of the citadel, which in itself is a relay into dark space, a portal for those living nightmare factories.

Vigil, that AI from Ilos - _feels like a lifetime ago-_ told us that. 'The Citadel is actually an enormous mass relay, one that links to dark space'. It's not just one relay, The Citadel is a collection of relays, along with being one itself large enough to move an invasion force like that of the reapers. I was on the other end of a loaded gun, who knew what could be out here, my mind raced. Vanguard reapers, Keeper home worlds, a secondary invasion force, countless husks and other abominations kept in storage. Any sort of nightmare could be here.

“Garrus, You must see this, Follow me” EDI said, she was wide eyed for a moment and her fingers twitched a little as she removed herself from the terminal. “I have completed my data mining processes from that terminal, it's technology is older than any known thing today, aside from perhaps the leviathan themselves as there is no record that predates them. I-.. one moment” EDI seemed almost distracted, she went up to a door, and like she owned the place tapped a few buttons and the door opened up to an elevator. “please, inside.” she said, as it started moving upwards she continued. “This facility is the staging ground for their initial invasion through the many relays throughout the citadel. When the Protheans disrupted the signal to activate the main relay for the reapers, it wasn’t discovered until it was too late, and the invasion was postponed. They could have simply sent their forces through the smaller relays that the keepers use, but their attack would be limited to the citadel and it would also alert the galaxy to the reaper threat. They knew they couldn’t survive a well prepared galaxy so instead they held off their attacks until they could get their entire force into play. Their planned invasion relied on Sovereign, and he failed. This significantly improved our chances for success. Here we are, let me get the shutters.” she said as we exited the elevator into what seemed to be a large circular observatory at the top of the structure.

The shutters opened and far off in the distance you could make out a large pristine and mystical structure with five long arms that stretched out into the reaches of dark space, tiny little lights all over from what you could guess to be hundreds of thousands of keepers at work. Out there in the darkness, with the light of the milky way galaxy in the background reflecting off it's pristine outer shell, was the citadel.

End Chapter 12


	13. Love of my Light

“Why?” I asked, staring out at the citadel. At _a_ citadel. “I-- I mean, why would they be building another one? I..” I shook my head, was I even thinking clearly. I was finding the more the voices and whispers were around, the more I began to question my own thoughts. How am I to resist something that's a part of me? That’s my own thoughts, or at least seemingly indistinguishable from _my_ thoughts. Everything was damn convincing and I would be mid-thought into agreeing with something before I would realize it's not something I agree with, and I would shake out of it and push the thought away.

_There is a reason I am here, why Shepard was brought here, and there’s nothing i could do to change it._

_Shepard is supposed to be here, and what will happen must be done, it's inevitable._

_Help is not coming, life can easily live on without us three._

_It's best if I should sit down here and wait._

And to go with that, the whispers were a little more easily seen as thoughts outside my own, holding voices of those in my past.

_You wont succeed out there._

_I love you, Garrus Vakarian._

_No matter what happens._

_You always say that G._

_What you think playing rogue agent out there with that spectre gives you an excuse to forget about your family?_

_Garrus!....Garrus.... Sidonis.. he.... he must have ..... the others ... they didn't.... I'm sorry._

_If you don't play by the rules, it makes you no better than those your trying to stop._

_You know your never going to see her again. And you've only ever been able to tell her you loved her once?_

_That's it? Just let her run off by herself? You know this was it. The last time._

_Garrus, if we don't do this she'll die. You need to go, trust me Garrus._

_Hey Garrus, I love you, but I'm sorry, I must go, I must die. Goodbye my love._

Wait. How? But. That wasn't a memory, Shepard never said that. But it feels like a memory, I feel like I remember her telling me that, and the whispers were recalling it. Whispering softly into my ear like she was beside me now, telling me it's ok. Telling me not to be sad, and that _this_ must be done, she must die. That she always loved me, always will. That she'll meet me at the bar.

Ignoring these thoughts, these whispers with her voice feels like ignoring her, like trying to constantly tell myself that it's all a lie, and that's not what she wants. And it _really_ feels like that's how she feels, that's what she wants. And it's hard to just stand there and breath.

_Goodbye Garrus, and if I'm up there in that bar and your not. I'll be looking down, you'll never be alone._

_Just let me go._

I closed my eyes and bowed my head. All I could do was just breathe, deep breaths, and try and focus. I had to believe what I know, before what I know changes. Before I accept those razor edged thoughts flying through. Another deep breath and I focused again. The Citadel, or... rather... a _C_ itadel. Out there way off in the distance of the empty void of dark space, lay that massive station giving off light from what I could only guess as hundreds of thousands of keepers working to finish off the construction of their grand station. It was almost complete, you could see they would be done within the next day or two, perhaps even sooner. It's impossible really tell with keepers, and there were countless flashing lights as they welded and fitted and build another Citadel. But why? Is that just what they are programed to do? Or is someone or _something_ instructing them to build another one? And what would that gain? The reapers are dead, another Citadel would do nothing to harm the galaxy, in fact, it would help out the galaxy. A beacon like the citadel would restore a certain feeling of order and normalcy that hasn't existed since before any of this started, Saren, Sovereign, Collectors, Harbinger, the invasion, all of it. Funny how it only took a few years to make me feel a few decades older. But indoctrinated or not I'm not any less wiser, and I can see when something reeks of wrong.

The keepers, or whoever was controlling them had a plan, and they were more than a few steps ahead of EDI and I, and everyone down there in the milky way galaxy.

_I'm definitely going to have to blow something up._

“It seems the galaxy will have a working citadel soon. As to what that entails or how they plan to place it back in it's original position raises some questions. If I could link up to a more... useful data terminal I may be able to find out more information about what is happening here, and perhaps I could discover where they are keeping Shepard, and why.” EDI said, answering my question as to why they are building another citadel. It's not often EDI doesn't have an answer to something, and you could tell she seemed a little agitated to be as in the dark as I was. And being limited to the capabilities of just the bot with the knowledge of what her capabilities back on the ship are must also be frustrating her.

“That's probably our best bet” I said in agreeance, working through the whispers suggesting otherwise. “Lets go figure out where Shepard is, and how to stop whatever is being planned here.”

#

Hours past, as EDI and I made our way deeper into the structure. Our advantage this time, EDI had a map and what seemed to be a good sense of where the important area's are, though not whats in them. To their own fault, the further we got into the structure, the more irritated and angry the whispers began to sound. I just took that as a sign that we were headed in the right direction. We passed through countless large rooms and I could only guess that they were used to store their reaper abominations for the invasion. Though none were sent through the keeper relays, EDI's theory to the reapers keeping their forces together for one massive assault made sense.

 

I still remember the sound of the reapers announcing their arrival as they burst through the sky as they slammed into Palaven's cities. Reports of husks, cannibals, marauders, and even brutes came in just hours into their invasion. Even from outside the city I had to fight through a couple dropped waves of husks and cannibals with my sister and my father while trying to get the as far away from the city as possible. Even through their training and military discipline that's instilled in all turians I could still catch looks of shock and terror on my sister, and deep in my fathers eyes.

Thinking back on that, it made sense they had already had sufficient reaper ground forces to use against us from the start. And that they had gotten those people from the Citadel. It explains the thousands of unsolved missing persons cases C-SEC filed away after a certain length of time with no results. People were being swept right out from under the heart of citadel space but no one ever seemed to care long enough to discover why. _Damn I hated my job there, we were supposed to be protecting people and we just let shit like this happen? That job, that uniform, wasn’t about protecting people, it was about keeping the peace, and that's not just about locking away criminals, it's about keeping the people calm. Even if it meant lying or refusing to acknowledge how much was happening that we couldn’t stop._

_It's fitting that those you ignored and were forgotten became your greatest threat through their ascension._

_What the hell?_

My senses sharpened as if preparing for a hostile encounter. I went on edge and was ready to strike as that voice whispered, clear as if right beside me, but also as if only in my head. It's hard to explain, but it was different from the whispers, that voice. The one that said “she is mine” it was that voice. But calmer, more in control. It was speaking directly to me listening in on my thoughts and finally deciding to pitch in revealing once again it's invasion of my mind.

“Oh spirits, do shut up.” I said out angrily loud before I could catch myself.

EDI gave me a look of concern, as we both know nothing was said. Instead of asking about the voices, or about my outburst, she avoided making an issue of the unpleasant situation of my indoctrination by instead saying “We are almost there, we must hurry.”

#

There was a door up ahead. Large bulkhead door with the expected door panel. Unlike all the other odd and very old doors we passed in those endless hallways which were now way above us. This one was quite familiar, the red glow coming from the locked virtual solid state panel gave a familiar feeling of home. It also reminded me that if Shepard was here she would be all over that thing. Instead of Shepard practically prancing over, EDI moved in and after a few short seconds of watching her omni-tool bypass the security codes it opened up.

Inside was a room with several tables with keeper terminals along them. It looked like a security room of sorts, and had around 20 or so terminals for keepers. At the other end of the room was a large rounded window out into darkness. This window took up the entire wall from about half up. On the lower half was the last row of consoles at the back of the room, and in the middle of these consoles was one not meant for keepers. It was a terminal for someone other than a keeper, and it was off like everything else in the room and was only lighting the darkness with a flashing orange orb.

Moving into the room brought a strong chill. The whispers started to become excited and quick and their words quickly turned into frantic and wordless whispers. This was definitely the right room, and their sudden change in tempo was solid evidence. Moving up to the terminal which felt like the centrepiece in the room despite not being in the middle felt like walking up to the off button on this whole nightmare. This is it, It's what we need to find out where Shepard is, whats going on here, how to stop it, and where to place the grenade.

EDI moved to a terminal near the door and had her back to the window, while I moved to the main console. A few quick taps and the screen hummed to life, and some dim lights turned on in the room. It was still too dark to see what was on the other side of the window, but I didn't really think it important. The terminal required my attention and I quickly ran through it. I stumbled upon a directory which inside had two names:

Harbinger – which was faded out

Shepard – which was flashing.

_Why the hell is this here? What do they want with her?_

It was only then that I had noticed that the whispers had fallen silent.

Looking down at my hands something was casting a faint light on them, lighting up the left side of my hands and causing me to stop myself from looking for more information and to look up at where the light was coming from. Last time I followed light it wasn't exactly the most ideal outcome but what I saw wasn't anything close to what I expected to see.

To my left, within arms-reach and looking at me with a look that stopped my heart and brought me weak in my knees,

was Shepard.

#

Days had past since we were last here, back on earth. It almost three entire days to get the Normandy running again, and without EDI's system checks, our manual checks were aggravatingly time-consuming. Walking past the CIC I caught some low ranking officer feebly trying to re-calibrate a core system to get it back into operational range. With cold fury at the prospect of the time it would take for him to get it right while she was still out there caused me to coldly toss him out of the way and start calibrating that system faster than anyone on the ship ever could. I had it running in a five minutes, I didn't even look back after I finished to see his face, though one could guess at the embarrassment... or anger.

My body screamed at me, I shouldn't of even been up. I was an hour off the med-bay table after Chakwas had cleaned up my countless injuries and internal bleeding. Noticing the tilt in gravity when I first stood up I knew we were planet side, and that the Normandy has crashed. I headed out towards the hatch and found joker who had just headed outside. My visor took note of his injuries but he was clearly still able to walk around. Despite several fractures he had moved about for hours trying to get systems including EDI back online and running again with minimal success. He had fractured his arm against a wall in the AI core when he couldn't get EDI re-activated. On his way back to the cockpit he could see her slumped figure in the co-pilot seat. Turning his head away he decided instead to head outside. To be free of the ship, to be free of her corpse. And we both just stood there, despite our injuries staring out into some unknown jungle grasping onto the last bit of light in the world before having to head back inside and face our losses, face reality, face the grey. It would of been so easy to just lay all the blame on joker, for hauling us out here, for leaving her behind, to blame him for the situation I was stuck in. But that;s not how it was, nor would it ever of worked out like that. I couldn't speak to him, couldn't see him. For he was a reflection of my nightmares, he had lost her, lost EDI. Standing in a room with him would have been impossible for me for his presence screamed what I would end up as. And whats worse EDI had a possibility of coming back, not that I knew at the time, but you still had the sense that because she was synthetic that meant there was always that 'maybe, just maybe'. But not for Shepard, if she was gone then there would be no changing that, not this time. So seeing joker was a fresh reminder of how I would be alone, and I couldn't bare it. Instead, when I wasn’t doing all I could to get the Normandy flying again, I was either in the forward battery, or in Shepards cabin. People kept trying to find words to console me, or offer hope, or a reality check; I just wanted to avoid anyone and all the sorrow in their eyes telling me they knew she was gone.

Then came the second night of being stuck on that planet and I was up in Shepards cabin, doing... something. It's... hard to remember. I think most likely I was looking for anything to remind me of her. Anything to keep that feeling of hope alive, to keep her alive. Cause without some anchor to believe in, the doubt that had already spread over the rest of the crew would corrupt me too, and I couldn't bare that. I was sitting down on _her_ couch when the doors wooshed open. I braced myself to shrug off someone coming up here to say some pointless thing. And instead of Liara, or Tali, or someone I'd expect to come up to try and console me Joker limped in instead.

“I... dammit. You mind if I sit?” joker asked, sorrow woven in through every word.

I took a moment before saying “Well your already here... go ahead.”

We both just sat there in silence neither of us not really knowing what to say, we both knew we were in similar circumstances and expressing anything to each other wasn't a skill either of us had. Finally joker said “She sacrificed herself... she.... god fucking dammit” he said, throwing his heads into his hands and on the verge of tears.

Those words came up with two people in my mind, Shepard, and EDI. It was hard to pinpoint who he was referring to or perhaps he was referring to both. I didn’t want to ask for clarity but instead I asked for the whole story. “what happened?” I asked in a solemn voice with a hint of sympathy.

I had already known what happened, we escaped the blast, left Shepard behind, got stuck on this planet. I had already been briefed by multiple people in their vain attempts to try and justify to me why we had to leave her behind followed by “she was a good commander” or “I can't begin to understand how you feel” or even “If you need anything, just let me know” as if my sudden situation provided a perfect opportunity for that minimal to 'help me out'. But I had yet to really speak to joker, he said a couple things when we were both outside of the Normandy, but nothing really solid was ever said between us of what really happened.

Throwing his heads out of his hands he began. “When Shepard made it to the beam, when we could see _someone_ had made it to the Citadel, that was my queue to head down and pick everyone up so we could all get out of there, together.” His voice was hoarse, and there was a tone of helpless guilt that told me how much the events weighed on him. HE had chosen to leave her, HE pressed the buttons. To him, it was all on him that we were where we are now, and he felt the full force of that. Regardless of whether or not it was the right tactical decision.

“You were probably 'out' in the med bay by the time we had everyone back on board. So then I just brought us back to the Citadel and waited for her signal. Waited to get her out. To get us all out. Cause that's my job, THATS WHAT I DO! And.... fuck I.... there was nothing, no radio, no signal, not anything.” He took a big gulp out of the very aromatic drink he had brought with him. “But she was still there I knew I fucking knew she was still there and we had to go get her. Once she activated it that was when we HAD to leave. But. Like. How the fuck could I just leave her behind?? way to fucking go joker you unloyal shit! Fuck.” His jab at himself took him out of rhythm and he had to take a moment before continuing. With a hard swallow he continued “she was still there, and she could of been dying and the one time she needs us to pull her out because she has _no one else_ and I wasn't there for her, I couldn’t do it. And just.... god fucking dammit.” Joker was shaking, his fury at himself battled with his sorrow for control of his emotions.

I knew as much as it was down to him, that us being here wasn't _on_ him. Leaving her behind wasn't his fault. All the grey pointed at him and placed all the guilt on him, but the black and white of it all was clear about there was no other option. And through that I had to believe if he could of stayed, he would have, I believe he would have, and I wasn't angry at him for not doing so, nor did I blame him for abandoning _her_. Regardless it was hard to know what to say in this moment, and so we sat in another moment where neither of us spoke. Eventually joker eventually picked up the silence.

“And then she had to go ahead and kill herself to save us all...” he said.

“It didn’t take EDI long to figure that, you know, that blast was probably going to kill her. So not only did I leave Shepard behind, I also had to outrun this explosion in order to keep EDI alive.” He shrugged at the grim reality of his story.

“She kept jabbering at me about the chances of success and how even if we reached the rendezvous with the surviving fleet we would still be overtaken by the blast and she would be killed. And fuck, she... she would not fucking accept that I could save her, that I could protect her. And she kept saying that the father I got away from earth, the father away from Shepard we would be when we had to go back and rescue her. Because EDI tracked her life signs all the way into FTL. EDI insisted we go back and save her, and that running away was pointless. That she knew she was going to die no matter what I did. I wouldn't listen and we were just getting farther and farther away and she fucking... she god dammit EDI why?!? just argh!”. He was breathing heavy, clearly pissed off and he had to take a few breaths before he could continue. His voice was becoming increasingly more hoarse as he continued.

“she... the last thing she said was 'I love you Jeff, but you can't save me. You can't help me. But you can help Shepard, I am taking the ship out of FTL and placing her onto the nearest planet. Damage should be minimal, go save her..... goodbye' and the next thing I know she takes over the whole ships and sets us for this planet and right as we exit FTL the blast overtakes us and we lose everything, and she... shes gone. I looked over at her and she gave me this look, this goddamn fucking look, then she was gone, her lights turned off and she just slumped in her chair. Then we fucking crashed. EDI sacrificed herself to give us probably a day. We could get back a day faster than if we were at the rendezvous.”

That price for hope felt too high, EDI sacrificed herself because she believed we could get to Shepard on time. EDI knew her fate and her last decision was to make the best possible chance for Shepard to survive. And if she hadn't it's likely we would have arrived too late to save Shepard. I owe so much to EDI.

“That memorial ceremony better be bullshit, and you better be right about not putting her name up. Because I’ve had more than enough of losing people. We'll be out of here tomorrow morning, that’s... what I wanted to tell you. I should...fuck... I'll see ya.” And with that Joker got up and left me to my own troubles, leaving me feeling he and I were the only one's capable of 'understanding what your going through'.

And now here I was, after dealing with the emotional roller coaster of the unknown, of whether or not she was alive, and the frustration of being light years away. Here I was sitting in the shuttle with nothing more than static information that told me “They found her” “condition critical”. I barely remember getting ground side but the next thing I know I'm walking into their med tents and someone is telling me hey had spent half of their med-tents reserve of supplies –which isn't as much as you'd think-- keeping her alive, they even had her in her own shattered room, while hundreds were crowded in the other we had to walk through. Seeing her body was like seeing a ghost... like seeing a corpse. She was almost unrecognizable under all the blood, and bandages, and no armour or clothing to speak of. Some small pile of tattered officers clothes were off in the corner and she was covered with bandages. My mind rejected what I was seeing, it refused to believe it, for an entire moment my mind screamed in sorrow at her death, at my glorious loss of the only person in the galaxy I could ever truly love. Even when I saw her chest move, up... then down again, it took me a moment to accept it. The battle between black and white, life and death, ended with the grey of we needed to get her to the Normandy. My moment of shell shock, which felt like it lasted for endless minutes, really only took the span of a few seconds.

All the medics, and nurses, and other faceless people from the Normandy started swarming her, and her face disappeared from view as everyone proceeded to lift her bed and carry her back towards the Normandy. I moved beside her and grabbed her hand, cold to the touch, and walked with her. I could catch all the hushed voices and solemn stares as I moved with them through the room of countless injured, through a muddy field of what was once a park and back to the Normandy.

There was so much darkness everywhere, the destruction, the dead, the injured, the lost, the look on everyone's faces. And those moments without her, and not knowing felt like darkness was all but snuffing out any light in my life. And those weeks where her life hung on the wire, where Chakwas, a full medical staff, and sheer luck kept Shepard from death. Those moments felt like I was hovering over the last candle, the last and most important source of life, and every time it flickered came the terrifying possibility that it had reached it's end, and it was about to go out right in front of me. And you had to watch that candle, you had to stay near that light because if you left it, if you looked away for just a second, it could be gone forever and you with have nothing left but the darkness and the thoughts of how she told you she would always be looking down and you'd never be alone.

#

Light. Shepard. Shepard was the light. It was her, but also not. Nonetheless her presence felt very familiar. She was like a VI type hologram made of white sparkling light, slightly transparent. But all her features were there and it felt like her, not a likeness of her like that stupid Shepard VI I hung around back on those days on the Citadel. When I started speaking to this thing I felt like I was speaking to her.

“Garrus! I.. I'm so glad your alright.” Shepard said, her voice emanating directly from the light and out loud so that even EDI could hear. There were no speakers anywhere and it only added to how real this thing, this... her... felt.

I stumbled over my words what could I even say? This was all too fast for me to even adjust, even the total silence from the whispers was throwing me off as you get used to voices trying to throw you into insanity.

“I.. I... Shepard.... No, where's Shepard?” I managed to spit out, almost accusingly. This situation was rapidly reaching previously unknown levels of weird and confusing.

“I'm right here.... or..” she looked down at her self, turning her arm made of light around as if for the first time. “I'm sorry Garrus, your too late.” she said looking back at me with an apologetic face.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked with a raised voice. My own thoughts taking up the swarm the whispers left behind.

“Your too late. They, what they did... can't be undone, it _had_ be done. This was the only option. You were never going to save me. I.. I'm sorry I couldn't just tell you, I wanted to but... I didn't know why they took me until after we got separated and EDI disappeared. It's good to see your ok by the way” she said nodding towards EDI who had taken up position almost directly behind Shepard, but about 10 feet away.

EDI just stared at Shepard eyes moving rapidly trying to take in all this information.

“where are you, I can still stop this, I have to be able to!” I said, almost to the point of screaming.

“My body is gone Garrus. Please for my sake just get out of this place _alive_ , it's not going to be safe for much longer. I love you, but there's nothing you could do now. I'm sorry.” she said, and she seemed truly upset about her new form and our current situation. And all her mannerisms were still there, had she not been made of pure light this would be Shepard. This would be my Shepard. Though it is her.... but... can I really believe that?

“I.... no.” I said, thoughts and panic grinding to a stop as a sudden coolness took over.

“I'm not leaving you Shepard, not until you explain whats going on. Then I will get EDI out of here, then I'm coming back and were going to spend what time we have left together, even if your no longer you.”

An emotion flashed over her eyes that I couldn't pinpoint, but she didn't object. Though you could tell she was opposed to the idea.

EDI on the other hand gave me a strong look and I just gave her a look right back. I had to trust I was making the right decision. The black and the white, the light and the darkness. She was either dead and this is what they did to her for some still unknown purpose. Or this this was just another ruse to throw me off and she could still be out there. They grey is we need to figure out exactly what the truth is and not only save Shepard, but to stop whatever is being planned. And if Shepard's gone, I'll get EDI out of here and make every last of these bastards pay.

And once this set into my mind the lines between whether or not Shepard was friend or foe became a little more hazy. Shepard had to be still alive and there had to be more to this. I could still feel a light inside and it was guiding me towards what i needed to know and what I needed to do. I needed to find the answers and it was the answers I intended to find out.

End Chapter 13


	14. Just Following Orders

Chapter 14 – Just following orders

There’s a rhythm in things, a pattern in life that you fall into. Without it you feel lost, but in it, you can pick every detail that’s out of line, that’s not quite right, not quite... calibrated. Subtle things that the untrained eye will always miss as you continue to try and find out how to live, and what to live for. But in the moment, when your life is following that rhythm... spirits...there no feeling like it, there’s no measure of that feeling of peace you feel. But when you fall out of it again, you can instantly feel how uncomfortable it is to live with out it, with out that rhythm. Guess what I am saying is Shepard became that rhythm, and that’s the whole thing behind how really... there just no Shepard without Vakarian.

“Garrus...” Shepard said from beside me, we were in her cabin, lying on her bead as I stared up through the window on the roof of her cabin watching the stars fly by behind the blue-shift of the Normandy as we were headed.... somewhere. It had only been the first night... or the second, there was so much going on then it's all a little hazy-- since Shepard was let out of the med-bay and was able to walk on her own power. Shepard had herself curled up against my side, arms over my chest and behind my neck, curled between the back of my head and my collar. Her head pulled in close so her chin was resting on my shoulder, her eyes closed.

In her voice, in that one word, my name. Were so many underlying tones. Relief, love, fatigue, pain, sorrow... It nudged my consciousness back into place from the harmonious feeling of peace and at last having her at my side without any medical machines hooked up, or doctors or Chakwas in the shadows waiting to pounce at the slightest indication of something going wrong with her recovery. I could tell she was about to ask something begging my confidence to bring her back out of despair. So I braced myself and shifted my head a little indicating I was listening.

After a moment she continued “I...” she moved her arms away and she rolled onto her back onto her own pillow, arms crossed over her chest, pain....or consternation across her face.

“I don’t know how to say it. I...” she huffed a breath, it almost felt like she was about to break down or was just frustrated.

I rolled onto my side and faced her, eyes piercing her peripheral vision reassuring her I would make everything ok, I had to make it all ok. “It's ok Shepard, I'm here for you...” I wasn't sure what else to say so instead I placed my free hand onto her hands, gripping hers gently.

“I should be dead Garrus.” she finally said, throwing it out like some careless opinion.

A long “hmm” was all I could reply with, I couldn’t come up with any words to reassure her against her thoughts because nothing I could say had any concrete logic to back it. A simple grunt in acknowledgement was all I could manage. She was right and it killed me to try and look at the details of how she was even here and the sheer force of luck that everything turned out alright. And that she was alive, she was right, and I knew it, but I didn’t want to face the prospect that this outcome, this happy ending was nothing more than wrong, different from what was intended. That by her being here was breaking the flow of things, interrupting that crucial rhythm of the galaxy to support our own selfish feelings. That moment she let go of my arm and ran to the beam, that was when she became a ghost, that was me letting her go, me letting her... dammit.

 

And that’s why my brain refused to acknowledge she was still alive when she was there right in front of me on earth battered and bruised but alive. My brain refused to believe it in those endless seconds because it broke the rhythm. No matter how painful or dark the rhythm would have to be all things must follow it, there’s a logic to it and here we were throwing logic out the window and forging our own path.

“You found me on earth, I was on the citadel when... I don’t want to think about there... what I am saying is how did I get back to earth? How did I survive to the beam when everyone else died? How am I here?”

I forced my brain to slow down and not delve deep into the grey, I feared what revelations it might have for me, and I had no interest in changing how things turned out with her survival. Instead I just came up with a simple, illogical but working response that put all that grey away. And we wouldn't find any more grey until that time again when EDI was reactivated and explained all that happened in detail. _But that’s another story._

I gripped her hand reassuringly and said “You were just following orders Shepard... that’s all.”

#

“So... where do we start?” I asked as I turned and leaned against the table with my arms crossed. I stared at this Shepard with my full attention. Looking for anything to suggest otherwise that this was her. That they did this to her for a reason she would eventually have to tell me. But I was getting to that, just wanted to see where this Shepard would take us.

“Well. How about how I survived the citadel? I know how, and you know how much that bothered me... I'm sure it bothered you too Garrus...” She looked very solemn, but also seemed content, like she had some knowledge that made this alright, that made her accept it. _Nothing about this was alright. Nothing._ I looked at her eyes, searching for that look that she had when she talked about this same subject that night and I couldn't find it. As if she remembered the night but not the emotion. That shook me a little.

“That's a start.” I shrugged at her, not really sure how to feel at this situation ad just running with it fro now. And so she began.

She talked about everything I already knew, about going through the beam and how she was forced into consciousness through her implants in order to press on, how the illusive man had implanted himself with reaper tech used to indoctrinate and control people, the fruits of all the research he had Cerberus do and he grafted it into himself only to fall to the indoctrination of the reapers because he was already indoctrinated. By keeping that proto-reaper as a door mat in his base the reapers were able to send their signals through to him at undetectable low levels. So when he grafted the tech onto himself it essentially sealed the deal. He forced Shepard to kill Anderson, but it wasn't completely the illusive man in control, it was the entity she later met who was orchestrating a “final test” for Shepard. It pushed hard on the illusive man to overpower Shepard's will to push forward and end her journey there. But Shepard’s influence was stronger. After the illusive man killed himself, and Anderson died the entity --and that’s all she called it for the length of her explanation, as if avoiding it's actual name-- lifted her up to the platform and presented itself as a manifestation of her nightmares. Moved through her thoughts and memories and picked the most inflicting form. Again testing her it presented her her three choices.

Control

Synthesis

Destroy

It had calculated that Shepard would see the bigger picture, see the rhythm of the galaxy and that in truth there were really only two options. Take over the reapers, replace Harbinger and every other reaper with a cortex of her own personality, thoughts and actions. It knew her paragon actions and attempts to save everyone would eventually fade, and her ideals were nothing but a product of a limited existence, and in time she would assume the same role as Harbinger and in time the cycle would continue as she began to see it's necessity, and the entity's break in rhythm would be solved and the cycle would continue.

Then the only other correct solution, was to eliminate synthetics and organics by forcing them to evolve into one form. This would eliminate the threat of one side destroying the other; if two sides are on the same team you cant fight anyone but each other. Shepard recalled some words from long ago.

“The relationship between synthetics and organics is symbiotic. Organic and machine intertwined, a union of flesh and steel. The strength of both, the weakness's of neither.”

The entity couldn't force this on organics, as it was not one. It was a sentient machine. Built to last the millennia like the reapers it created. So like the reapers it's attempt at synthesis created only abominations – the reaper forces. Only through the willing consent of a strong willed organic could it finally implement the final solution to the organic synthetic issue, the solution IT millions of years ago.

The cycle, the reapers, everything was just part of the plan to end up at it's solution. Any organic could just walk into the beam for the greater good, but without the proper measure of conviction, of purpose, willpower, the change would not work. It would create only monsters. So the Reapers and the cycle were dual purpose. To 'Trim down' organics and obliterate synthetics every 50,000 years to prevent both sides from eliminating their existence through war before a proper individual could be found. And to provide a measure of a desperate situation that could provide a better likely hood of forging and forcing such and individual such as Shepard out of the shadows and onto the tip of the spear.

And so when she became this individual, and to be sure, it instructed Harbinger to bring this individual down to their lowest point, bring them closest to death and hopelessness and every indication that they should just give up. Then watch to see if it would press forward.

And she did.

Then it guided the individual through the second test, again testing their willpower against it's own through two important figures in that individual's life.

Anderson.... The Illusive Man

it waited to see is she would succeed.

And she did.

It thought it had the perfect candidate, and through it's explanation as the child it had groomed this individual into the perfect final ingredient for the machine of which it's design the entity had leaked into the knowledge of each cycle at the appropriate time. In which it's construction would be a test for the inhabitants of the cycle itself. It had waited millions of years for this moment of triumph and was finally ready to see it's plan come to fruition as she stepped up and made her choice.

And she blew it all up.

It couldn’t even comprehend what it witnessed, the choice she made as she charged the machine, gun firing in hand as she walking into the flames of her own doing. Her implants and her sheer determination to destroy the reapers keeping her from falling. And in that span of time the entity made a decision to salvage the situation best it could. As it's once prime individual lay unconscious in front of the tube hand bleeding from gripping a shard of glass as she fell down, implants failing and her heart quickly fading it ordered the keepers to abandon the citadel through the relays bringing itself and her with it.

As it disappeared through the portals –with the help of it's keepers-- the last keepers moved up to the platform and began to drag her body back to the nearest relay in hopes it can still be salvaged in time for a new machine to be constructed and her essence and biomass be added, for what else could the entity have done at this point? This was it's best option. As the Normandy entered FTL the keepers dragging Shepard were seconds away from their relay but before the could get to it the citadel erupted in a brilliant red light shook the citadel sending everything flying. The keepers lost their grip on her limbs and she went flying down another hallway skidding along the floor as gravity pulled her down the hall. The keepers in a panic rushed through the relay leaving her behind. And by sheer luck Shepard was tossed through the same portal she entered, spitting her back onto earth right before the beam collasped and tossing her onto some rubble. And there she layed for several long moments as a sea of red washed over the galaxy cleansing it of all reapers –and functional technology for that matter-- before finally by some stroke of luck, some final unfinished task, some...order.... she took a breath.

#

As she finished her story the three of us stood in the room silent. Finally we all knew every detail of what went down, how she survived, where the keepers went, and why she was taken here. To this extra-galactic staging ground. I watched the light dance along the floor off her body, thinking of how everything seemed to just fall into place, and how this thing was desperately trying to restore the rhythm. _This thing.... it's still here... it must be that voice, the same one that was the kid to her... and now she's like it? no... it doesn’t want to duplicate itself, it wants to finish the job.... or perhaps it wants another leader for...oh no._

I looked right at it in the face my gaze piercing into it's eyes and through it/she knew I was looking for something out of place. It knew it's attempt at deception was likely up, that it wasn't Shepard.

I bet it didn’t know. I bet it couldn’t no, it's mindset could be no different from the reapers. Lacking essentials needed to comprehend life that can't live for millions of years.

“so why did you do it? Why didn't you decide to control? Or the other option? This thing told you destroy was only a temporary solution.... so how could you think to choose that?”

James told me an old human saying about hook, line and sinker, and I think this would be one of those moments. This question was the _hook_.

She looked at me, eyes moving rapidly as it searched for an answer. Shepard would know.

“I had to kill the reapers... they were a threat to the galaxy... they had to be stopped.” she said, seemingly confused by the question.

 _Line_. Anyone who wasn't around her for as long as me would assume she would say the generic hero Shepard response and that’s exactly what it gave me. It's not –and I know-- how Shepard speaks to me, it not _my_ Shepard, I know what she would say to a question like that from me. Her response to me would go deeper than that and I knew I had it.

“Hmm, funny. I swear if I knew you, you'd call back on an old conversation..mm or two. And you'd know one thing.”My eyes lit up at this thing and it knew I knew that this thing was not my Shepard. This thing was a deception.

 _Sinker._ “You were just following orders Shepard... that’s all.” I gave it a moment let the feeling of beating this illusion to sink in before twisting the dagger.

“You know I am a little disappointed I thought you could have been her for so long. So why don’t you just tell us who you really are, then tell us where she is so I can take her back to where she belongs. Not that you'll be able to stop me now that I know she's still alive.” It's facial reaction to my confidence confirmed it for me that she was indeed, still alive. _An old c-sec trick_

EDI moved right through Shepard—it's form and right to the console, immediately she began searching through the database. There was nothing this thing could do but watch.

“That's the thing you or even the reapers could never understand about us. You can plan and you can calculate all you want but all it takes is the two of us. You think what we did to your entire army would be a hint to back the fuck off. I made her promise to come back to me, and you see? There's just no her without me. And nothing, not mercs, not synthetics, not the reapers and not even you can ever take her away from me. What we have is...hmm... it's all just beyond your comprehension. Were damn tough to kill, you should know that.”

A loud rumble from the somewhere shook the entire structure and before she faded away this Shepard gave me a very very angry look. _Good._

“Garrus, I know where Shepard is... she's at the far end of this large room beyond this window. This place is for.... oh no.” EDI said, EDI turned and gave me a truly frightened look. She pressed a button and lights started illuminating the massive warehouse --larger than even the one with the vats-- that was on the other side of the window. Down and down the light went revealing a mega-vault of nightmares. Beyond the window was absolutely massive room that contained countless mechanical horrors that resembled different species from across millions of years. This was a vault of reapers. Like finished versions of that proto-reaper these were the ones that the collectors –or whoever assumed the role of the collectors over the countless cycles-- managed to completely build. And they stored them here, like some kind of terror trophies. _Prepare for ascension, we are your genetic destiny, we are the harbinger of your perfection._ All those taunts we had to suffer through back when harbinger would actually talk to us all led to this. Not only did the reapers destroy everything every 50,000 years, but they also create reapers in the forms of the most dominate species in the galaxy at the time, and the ones they manage to complete, they store here. In this massive room.

“uhh.. EDI... let's not make this any worse by pressing any bad buttons. Lets hope none of those things are active. I've had enough go wrong today.”

“That would probably be wise. I'm ready to leave now.”

instead of looking for stairs I decided that would take too long, so I smashed out the window and we climbed through it. It was a short fall down to the floor and we began to move towards the other end, where EDI knew they were had Shepard.

“This _thing_ wants to restart cycle. It knows that with Shepard alive, it's original plan to use her body to attempt to synthesize the galaxy once we finished rebuilding the relays would no longer work. And without any reapers Shepard’s essence has changed and using her to synthesize would not work. It would have no purpose. So it seems it is attempting to force her to control the reapers.” EDI explained, she inflected much disgust in the word _thing._

“Whats that about no reapers? You see this room?” I exclaimed as we ran past endless rows of endless variations of these monsters. I guessed that each were about 3-5 times the size of the proto-reaper and they were tightly packed next to each other.

“While these are reapers, many lack the proficiency for destruction as the original model. That which resembled the leviathan race. It seems only a strong mind is needed to control the reapers, as such from what I found, Harbinger was the leader of all the leviathan and this entity –who was created to bring peace between synthetics and organics-- had the first reaper built right under his nose through countless people. Millions upon millions, significantly more than required for other reapers.”

“Sounds like Shepard’s report back when she went face to face with the leviathan. How could they just let this thing take all those people?” I asked, panting a little from the long run. You could make out some structure way ahead. Shepard had to be there.

“It seems they trusted the intelligence, and that’s what they referred to the construct as. They trusted it in it's creation of this remarkable machine in the likeness of their leader. And upon completion, the intelligence invited the leader to connect with the machine, insisting only a mind as great as his could bring this creation to life, copying his personality, his essence and providing a leader for the synthetics to follow while he could maintain control over organics. Two gods of the same mind. This what the intelligence had the leviathan leader believe. And he was consumed. He became harbinger the leader of the reapers.”

“And now this thing is trying to make Shepard the new leader.” I said back.

“Yes, and in time, the cycle would eventually continue.”

“Lets just get Shepard before that can happen. I just don't think it would work out between us if she was a reaper.” I said humorously. _Cheer, coming from me. And at a time like this. Hah._

“Although an interesting situation, I too do not wish to test it.” EDI replied.

#

It took the last of my suits stim packs to get to the base of the platform where the were holding Shepard. We must have run for 15 20 minutes in order to get to the other end of this place. But EDI insisted this is where she was. The running took way too long, but at least we didn't stop once. Heat was radiating off my face and my eyes were having a hard time focusing. We were at the base of the platform, just a few flights up some stairs. There was some giant contraption with tubes and wires leading off the platform on the other side and feeding into Harbinger. Or rather, a reaper corpse that looked exactly like him. _This construct thing must only be a few moments away from taking her away from me forever, we have to hurry._

“Hurry up the stairs! Lets go! Were out of time!” I yelled, exhausted or not I took those stairs three at a time, up the first flight and onto the second the whispering came back and hit me like a tidal wave. A massive headache felt like it was tearing my head in half. I tripped on the stairs and had to catch myself. I could feel EDI grabbing my shoulder and yelling something at me, but the whispers were too loud, the pounding was too loud.

“YOU CANNOT STOP WHAT HAS ALREADY BEGUN. YOU PETTY ATTEMPTS TO STOP ME END HERE. NOW DIE. DIE AFTER WATCHING HER BODY BURN AS HER CORTEX IS DOWNLOADED INTO THE SHEPARD OF THE NEW CYCLE!” His voice shook my mind, it felt like a earthquake from the inside, everything hurt I chocked, something warm was running down my face, I put my hand up to it, and caught a bunch of blue on my glove. Blood, blood was running down my nose, this thing was trying to kill me, and it was doing it somehow. _Go. NOW._

I launched myself up again and pushed myself further, the next flight, and the next, the light was getting stronger, my visor pinged me of a heartbeat, still beating, then the next flight of stairs, it registered the heartbeats IFF as Cmdr Shepard. I coughed on my own blood, spitting it out so I could breath again, and I just kept going. Eventually at some point I found myself being helped up by EDI, I wanted to tell her to just run ahead and get Shepard, but I couldn't speak, I could hardly think. I could feel his control start to overwhelm me, like bulkhead doors closing down on parts of your brain. Your thoughts, your memories the closer I got to the top, the more powerful it became.

I just kept going and going fighting through it's influence for as long as I could, trying to keep my goal in mind and hoping it was enough. Then I reached the top platform and saw Shepard.

She was attached to some kind of chair and her hands were on these weird handle things. The chair was hooked up to the giant machine that fed into the reaper and I felt everything shift for a moment. Like the inertial dampeners on a ship.

“WATCH HER BURN, _YOU_ HAVE FAILED.”

And then the chair lit up with electricity and her eyes opened up in terror and she looked at me with a look of fear and a look that said _help_ _me_ and then in an instant she was vaporized right in front of me. I Screamed fell to my knees and collapsed I watched her dust fall to the floor and her Reaper's eyes light up, a moment later the red light from it's laser started to charge up and darkness overtook me.

 

 _garrus, Garrus, GARRUS! Suddenly_ I was pulled from the darkness to see EDI standing over me.

“Garrus wake up, I need your help!” EDI was yelling at me and tugging at me to get up.

“but Shepard she--” I tried to say, my whole body shaking “She's stuck to the machine and it's starting up, hurry you must help me destroy it before it destroys her!” EDI kept looking over at Shepard, then back at me.

EDI helped me up and I noticed the voices were replaced by a loud ringing in my ears, I could think a little more clearly now. I stumbled over to the contraption and to Shepard. I was about to reach down to grab her hand but EDI pulled me back “no wait!”

“what? Just pull her out this thing is about to start I'm not gonna watch her die again!” I screamed.

“we must all touch the panels at the same time, the system will overload and it will destroy the reaper, much like how the crucible's random energy overloaded the reapers, three sentient beings will overload the system and it will destroy the system and the reaper attached to it. You _must_ TRUST ME”

Then all in a moment, one look at EDI, another look at Shepard, and right at that moment the electricity started to jump again and Shepard opened her eyes and gave me a look of relief, exhausted relief and our eyes connected and EDI and I held one pair of hands together and placed our other hands atop Shepard's and I could feel the jolt surge through my body and I gripped both hands tightly and closed my eyes.

And all light, feeling and sound just faded away to nothingness.

_There is no Shepard without Vakarian. I'm with you till the end._

End Chapter 14


	15. Meet me at the bar

Next thing I knew I was surrounded by this heavy mist. I had no idea where I was nor did I remember how I got here. The first thought that came to mind was of Shepards description of the nightmares she used to have, though there was nothing near me, no trees or anything. I also noticed my visor was gone, wearing that thing for so long, the lack of info about my surroundings being fed to me gave a sudden jolt of vertigo. I looked around for my visor and looked down at myself. I wasn't in my armour anymore. I couldn't feel any of my scratches or wounds, and there wasn't any blood on me. In fact, I was in a suit; It was a dark blue with silver trimmings moving down the center. There were also compliments of red and black along the sides of it, and It was made of high end stuff, even a political salary would have a tough time fitting a suit like this into their budget. And damn was it comfortable... comfort, I got a chill that ran through my body. Kind of like human goosebumps, but for turians it just wakes up our nerves and helps us become hyper aware of our surroundings, like when you know your in an ambush area.

Nothing around me, no one around me, in a fancy suit, no injuries, everything seeming so peaceful...

_am I?... no._

I began to walk forwards, the thick fog preventing me from seeing any farther than ten feet in front of me. “Shepard!... SHEPARD!” I called out and could hear my voice rocket off into the distance until it was swallowed up by the fog. “EDI! SHEPARD! .... where am I.... I need to get to Shepard”. A sense of urgency overcame me and I started to walk faster through the fog. I had no idea where I was going, and no idea where anyone was, but I had to find her, I had to find Shepard, and get her out of here, bring her home, keep her alive.

Up ahead I could see a wall, large solid metal wall poking out of the fog like it was part of something much bigger and much more intimidating than what the fog is currently allowing me to see. I walked up to it and placed my hand on the metal with a soft 'Clang'. “Hello??” I called out, my voice echoing through the metal wall and I could hear it continuing through the metal under body of the wall. This thing was hollow. I walked along it and the metal narrowed out towards the front before disappearing into the fog.

_This thing is familiar.... It's a hull... of a ship._

I found my way to a ramp of sorts and into some sort of warehouse... but it wasn't a warehouse, it was a cargo hold.

It was Normandy's cargo hold. “Hello! Hey!” I called out, no one was here, it was empty, it _felt_ empty. Instinctively I remembered EDI's presence throughout the ship and called out to her “EDI, where is everyone?” the silence did a lot to try and unsettle me, the elevator was offline so I had to go through a tunnel into the Mass Effect core, then up to the engineering deck and up the service ladders and tunnels up to the AI core. All the while calling out to the open spaces for someone, anyone.

I finally hauled myself out onto the floor of the AI core, after standing myself up I looked around. EDI was offline, and her console was off. Without power to the optical solid state interface there was no way I would be able to power her up. _Sleep for now... If I can't find anyone I'll come back for you. Brought you back once, I could do it again._ Most of the power on the ship was out and there was barely enough light to see. The power to the door was off so I had to shove my arm into the wall behind the maintenance panel to reach the override lever, with a satisfying click of the gears moving out of the way, the door slacked under the weight of the gravity. I pulled my arm out of the wall, replaced the panel and forced open the door into the medbay. There wasn't much light in here either, but enough to see the whole place well enough, turians could see well in the dark anyways, better than humans at least.

“Please... wake up Shepard, wake up... That's an order” a figure said off to the left, almost invisible in the shadow of the low light in the room. I recognized that voice, it was my own. Over to the left was a frail figure, hopelessly standing my a medical table. His hand were cusped around one of her hands and he had the stature of someone who hadn't slept or ate anything in days.

There I stood, behind myself, as if in a memory, a dream, watching myself huddled over her unconscious body, her... _wait. She's not breathing._ That's wrong _._ She wasn't breathing and I remember it like a permanent scar on my mind of her breathing, the slow and steady rise and fall of her chest telling me she was still there. But she wasn't breathing, I walked up behind _him_ and looked at her, her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed, peaceful. I looked down over at me, _I_ didn't seem to notice... me. _My_ attention seemed to be lost onto _my_ grip on her hand... but... she was dead. There was no tell-tale sign of life, of hope and this _turian_ was just crumbled by her side holding her arm and begging her to wake up.

 _This isn't right, she survived this._ I put my hand on this turians shoulder, and he was cold, and he felt very weak. He must of been next to her for days without moving,... he was wasting away next to her. His light had gone out. He completely ignored me, and I could sense there wasn't anything I could do. My breathing was long and slow, and everything felt heavy, the air felt thick. After a moment I walked off through the open doors into the hall, again no one was here, and you could still hear the eerie begging of the other me to his Shepard. The thought of those two back in that room sent chills to my core. I steeled myself for what other horrors I would come across on this phantom version of the Normandy.

I walked over to the forward battery, and after unlocking it through another panel in the wall, shoved the doors open. Over to the right, my on my work bench, sat a shattered N7 Helmet, the visor was cracked through the middle, and everything else on the desk had been tossed off onto the ground. Only the Helmet and some dog tags were on the table. The helmet stared back at my solemn gaze and I huffed a breath and moved on. What the hell was going on here? Where was I?

_If this thing goes sideways and we both end up there..._

Next I made my way to Liara's room, the doors wern't locked shut and I was able to wrench them open easily enough. On the floor there was a cracked and broken shell of a certain data sorting VI, I sighed in disappointment, and stepped over it to explore the rest of the room. All her Shadow broker screens were cracked and broken. Some were on the floor, smashed. The area by the monitors was a mess. Over by the bed the asari was sitting on her bed facing away from me, and crying.

“Hey, Liara. Whats going on here?” I said, I forgot about how the other me didn't even acknowledge my presence and was put off balance when again, my presence wasn't recognized. She must of torn all the monitors down with her biotics in a fit she must of had. Perhaps over the two _people_ in the medbay. Whatever it was, there was no way I could just ask and find out.

I could only assume what I would find on the upper levels, and wanted to be spared looking at some other depressing scene. There was one spot I knew I could go to, something about it felt familiar in the back of my mind, like a nudge in the right direction.

_Meet me at the bar..._

The doors to the port observatory slid open automatically, there was no obvious source of power. Out beyond the large glass window was the heavy fog, making it impossible to see anything. Over by the bar was EDI, she had a bottle of liquor in her hand and she was pouring it into a glass for a figure in officers clothes sitting at the bar with her back to me. Her dark red shoulder length hair sent my heart for loops.

“Shepard” I said, shocked. _Respond to me, please respond to me. Don’t be another spirit._

Without looking back she raised the now filled glass to me in acknowledgement without looking back then she took down the glass in one go, placing it back on the table to which EDI was more than happy to refill. _Well these two are doing better than anyone else on this ship._

“Garrus, good to see you found your way here, we expected you would eventually show up.” EDI said in a rather pleased tone. And this was EDI, not some ghost, or memory, or whatever those other people were. These two in front of me were _THE_ Shepard and EDI, I could feel it.

“You did huh? You know whats going on here? Did you uh... see--” “Dont even bring it up” Shepard interrupted, knowing exactly where I was going with that sentence. _This was my Shepard, this Shepard knows me._ She downed another glass and EDI filled it up again.

“Is that really a good idea? Don't know about you two, but we have the real thing to return to. 'Dank' and 'depressing' Normandy just doesn’t fit my style.” I said, as I took a seat on the bench next to Shepard.

I expected myself to just run up and grab her, hold her in my arms and never let go. I had her back and it didn't matter where we were as long as I had her back. But instead as calm as the old me I just cooly took a seat beside her, and managed to say the right thing.

“Hah” Shepard exclaimed, turning towards me to look at me, waggling a finger in front of my face.

“A: you just got here, B: the Mebbay _IS NOT_ up for conversation, that tripped me out in ways I do NOT want to revisit, and uh.. C! I can't get drunk in this place. Alcohol absolutely has NO effect.” she removed her finger with a smile that said _damn am I glad to have you here Garrus._ And she grabbed her drink again and downed it. EDI finished off the bottle she had in her hand filling the glass again and put it with the rest of the empty bottles on the shelf behind her. She reached under the counter and grabbed another one, seemingly pleased or amused with the inhuman amount of alcohol Shepard was drinking.

“I don't want to be the one to bring up the big question... but are... we?...” I asked, drawing out the question as long as I could in hopes it could be answered without me having to ask it.

“Well if we are, it sure isn't how I remember it” Shepard said with a heavy unamused sarcasm.

“that’s not funny.” I said back. Narrowing my eyes into a quick 'hey you' glare.

“No, we are not. Would like another Shepard?” EDI said. “Couldn't hurt, Garrus?” Shepard offered. “Hmm, maybe when we get back.” I replied. Shepard seemed very self amused as she downed yet another glass. The Shepard I knew could handle her liquor better than most krogan, but this whole scene was ridiculous. She must be so proud of her current ability to handle the entire stock of the bar.

I took a deep breath and let it out through my nose. “hmm. A” I said, trying to copy Shepard's tone of voice with the 'A' “have you seen my visor? And B: EDI how do we get out of this?”

“hell if I know, no tech works here, and my room's a mess _and_ someone took all my models _AND_ my hamster. And the fish are dead, and there's the rest of the ship. Not to mention I've had a hell of a day.” Shepard said downing another glass, and finishing off another bottle. I guess not going up to the other decks was a good idea, could only wonder what miserable sight is up there in the CIC, ghosts of Joker, and EDI, Traynor and whoever else.

“I believe I know a way out, according to the data I uncovered only Chakwas made this possible.” EDI said, getting down to business while pouring Shepard another. She then poured me a glass of the same stuff, gave me a quick look, and shrugged.

I guess If you can't get drunk in this place, drinking levo-alcohol couldn't kill me. I took a curious sip, it didn't taste much different from dextro-alcohol, but it tasted better than that dextro-levo synthetic stuff Shepard and I used to settle for. I wasn't interested in really drinking the rest, so I put the glass down, and gave EDI a nod of thanks.

We both gave EDI a look, begging to further explain what Chakwas has to do with anything.

“I do believe this place would be a similar result in the event that Shepard's implants were not removed. Why were here I can not explain, but I did notice Shepard's name on the wall. Aside from that, had you not developed an independence from the implants, you would likely have died on earth. Chakwas determined years ago that all depended on your outlook, your will to live, determined your reliance on the implants. You developed a remarkable independence from them, which allowed you to survive after the events on earth. In addition, it has also saved us here, they were reaper tech, and the 'control'” she even added those bunny ears _why are they called that?_ With her hands “machine we found you at was reaper tech. Your implants would have boosted the process and you would have been... converted into a reaper. The new harbinger. I can assume that it would have also consumed us as well with no problem if you still had the implants.” she added almost reluctantly.

“You assume? What you guessed?” I asked. “yes, there was not sufficient data to confirm what impact the removal of shepard's implants would have on the transformation process and what impact we would have by adding ourselves to the machine by linking hands. Based on data I had not yet finished analyzing at the time, it was designed only for one specific organic individual, not three. It seems my... guess was correct. But I can now confirm that the removal of the implants bought us enough time while the intelligence hurried to adjust the device to accommodate Shepard post, and that had the device been ready and that Shepard still had her implants, there would of been nothing we could of done to stop it from forcing you to control the reapers.” she said, gesturing towards Shepard.

_She guessed, spirits she guessed! Hell, so much for trusting her to always have the answers, or tell us when she doesn't. A guess!_

“ok, so were not dead, then how do we get out of here? I've had enough of the gloomy fog and the broken ship.” Shepard said, finally deciding to opt out of drinking another glass. “for example, if were in some kind of dream, or whatever, what's happening to us back in the real world? I swear if another keeper touches me.--” Shepard said.

“yea, and if I remember correctly, I was almost dead from that indoctrination.” I said in unamused tone.

“you were what?” Shepard said turning to look at me with concern.

“err. Maybe later.” I said, not wanting to take up more time explaining that whole fiasco.

“Actually Garrus, I believe that is the key to getting out of here.” EDI said.

“what?” 'sigh' “crap, what do we have to do?” I said, dreading the answer.

“this whole place seems familiar, If I were to... guess--” “I think I hate it when ever you 'guess' now EDI” I said, referring back to her most recent guess. “why? I'm only the most intelligent AI left in the known Galaxy...”

both Shepard and I gave her an unamused look, and we both said “That's the point.”

She gave us a quick little smile, almost swooning at the acknowledgement of her superiority. Twisting her curves with a lot of self satisfaction. Then she looked around a bit before returning to the seriousness of what we had to do.

#

This place, this entire ship and the broken shells of those we know within it, are manifestation's of my indoctrination and the hidden pains within all three of us. Our own internal struggles, our fears, our pain... It's all keeping us here. The intelligence used my own internal weakness's, my own struggles against me through the whispers in an attempt to whittle my willpower down to the point where it could speed up the indoctrination process. One reason why Shepard is so resistant to indoctrination is her sheer ability to _just not give up,_ to _not submit_. EDI told us in order to get out of here, we had to stop resisting, avoiding “that which makes us weak”. We had to remove anyway for indoctrination to root itself by facing ourselves and dealing with it. EDI said that after we have resolved our own conscience this place should just dissipate and “assuming the keepers haven't returned we should wake up where we fell.”

And so EDI made her way up to the cockpit of the Normandy to face her own. Shepard went down to engineering to overload the core with a grenade or something, destroying this ship would crush her. This ship is her life and it holds all that she holds close to her heart.

And I? I made my way to the medbay.

My breath threatened to speed up to the rate of my already racing heart, but I kept it level and walked into the medbay with a purpose. I wanted to get this out of the way quickly like ripping off a bandage. So I swiftly walked up next to myself, pull his shoulder back and made him face me, and with cold steel eyes I coldly said “she's dead.” I shoved his shoulder back and he fell back against the wall, this pathetic individual was to broken on the inside to even fight back. He began to wimper and convulse under his own sobbing. I curled my hand into a fist and struck him in the head with the back of my hand. Cold fury of the likeness of Archangel.

“She's dead, get over it, you lost. You promised yourself you could keep her safe, that you would stand by her, and you just let her go, you let her leave and now she's dead. Look at this!” I yelled, my own emotion mixing into the anger in my voice. Pointing over to Shepard who lay still on the table, almost peaceful in stature. “you let her die, this is on you, ALL on you” I was taking deep breaths by now I could feel something deep rooted in my mind twist in agony, like pulling out shrapnel. _Which really hurts._ I didn't feel like I was in the clear yet, so in the moment, I opened up my omni tool, _which worked in this moment, not sure why neither of us thought of checking our omni-tools before._ The red glow from the tip of the blade cast a faint glow on the surroundings, “I'm sorry Shepard. I...” and I drove the blade right through her chest and it went right through the medical table. I gasped in shock and tears flooded my eyes. Whether or not this was my Shepard the whole moment hit me really hard. Her body shook in the whole motion and was still. I looked over at myself and he was still, he was leaning against the wall and his head was drooped down into his chest. He was dead. And so was she. I killed her, if she wasn't dead before, she was now and I killed her. I ripped out the blade and shook my arm outwards to retract the blade. I fell to my knees and grabbed the table with both hands to support myself, I lay my head against her side and let it all flow. My breaths were nothing more than convulsions of utter shock. I kept tensing my hands gripping the table as tight as I could. Then all at once it was over.

My tears stopped and my breathing returned to normal I looked up and Shepard was gone, and so was _I_. There seemed to be more light in the room and a sudden shift in atmosphere. It was over, my mind felt clearer than I could remember. This meant the intelligence would have a hard time indoctrinating me without something to root to. I killed her, yea I killed her by letting her go, she almost died because of that. And here I made sure she was dead, like taking the grey of her life in limbo and forcing it into the black and white with a blade. And that was all me. That experience solidified something in my mind and now I would be able to move forwards and now it wouldn't be able to take me out from a distance. I did what I would never do and now that scar on my mind will keep me safe until we take this thing out and get back to the Normandy.

I walked back to the mess and stood in the middle, we all agreed to meet here once we finished dealing with our own personal situations. EDI returned first, there was an obvious residue on her hands and arms, that which she tried to wash off before returning here. She seemed very distraught, and had obviously been through a similar traumatizing experience. Not that she could easily be indoctrinated, but since she ended up here with us she too had to face her own.

She grabbed her shoulder with one arm and stood there looking rather uncomfortable, looking as about ready to get out of this place as I did. Next Shepard arrived with a detonator in hand. She was about to face her own, but at least we could be here for her in this moment.

“ready?” Shepard asked quietly. Walking up to me and grabbing one of my hands in her free one.

“you sure this will work EDI?” I asked over to EDI, who was leaning against the mess table.

“I see no other possible exit.” was all she replied, keeping her glace away. Bracing herself as we were about to blow everything up.

Returning my gaze to Shepard I brought her in close and looked down at her eyes piercing into my own, I took a deep breath, taking in the moment then said “do it.”

CLICK

Everything erupted around us, the floor and the walls began tearing themselves apart around us fire bursting out in every direction. I brought Shepard in as close as I could hugging her tight. EDI Hugged herself and braced. Everything ripped apart and flames finally overtook us and everything went black and the last thing I felt was Shepard's breath on my neck as she dug her face into my collar, hugging me back as hard as she could with her arms wrapped around me, detonator still in hand.

#

Next thing I knew I was lying on the floor, Shepard grasped in my arms. EDI was off in the corner she too was just waking up, lights and eyes opening up and scanning our new location. Shepard began to stir and I gave her some room to wake up. _It worked, we did it...too bad it isn't over yet._ We weren’t by the control machine anymore, were were in a room, something brought us here, it left us with food, a medkit, and water. The sudden change in luck felt like another dream.

Keepers. What else could it be? But why would it bring us here? Hmm... either way there was no way the intelligence could stop us now, except for simply killing us for revenge. But what else could bring us here and give us food and water and a medkit, but one of the keepers?

“Anyone else think the care package is a little weird?” I asked.

“hmm what? oh...” Shepard said, waking up and propping her self up against the closest wall after checking me over with her eyes to make sure I was ok.

“HEY! It worked” EDI said with a big smile. Which received another set of completely unamused glares.

“That was a joke” she quickly said.

We checked our gear, omni-tools, armor, radios. Everything worked, someone had even restocked our supply of thermal clips. After going through what I just went through, the sudden in pouring of resources seemed like a trap, but everything seemed to check out, we just didn't know _who_ did this.

Before we had a chance to discuss it we were rocked to our feet by the entire ground shaking. There was a huge explosion somewhere else on the station followed by a huge clatter of noise that sounded like a war. A voice pushed itself through the static of the radio and reached out.

“Garrus, dammit, you were supposed to pick me up.” It spat angrily over the sounds of gunfire.

I blinked at Shepard, almost at a loss for words, I couldn't even believe who I was hearing.

“Sol?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise.

“No shit, now get your spurs down here and join the party, seems like shit's been going to hell here.”

I scoffed a laugh of surprise, I could hardly believe it.

“You have no idea.” was all I could manage in response.

We prepped our gear, took the medkit, and the water, but left the food. And off we went.

For reinforcements, have finally arrived.

End Chapter 15


	16. Sol

There was complete chaos below, and the three of us were on the upper level looking down into the carnage below, running down the hall to try and get down there and give her some back up. We could see everything through a large pane of glass that took up half the floor and the entire right wall.

Down in the middle stood Sol, the leather skirt on her armour flaring out as she gracefully twisted her body to the next target. Pulling up her custom blue Phaeston and drilling a few rounds right between the eyes of the closest keeper. She shared the same face paint as I did, and had intelligent and piercing dark blue eyes, darker than mine. She had shining blue armour with silver accents, like a reverse of my armour, but with a darker blue that matched her eyes. She flowed from target to target like a well rehearsed dance. No sooner would she pop a heat sink than she would already have a fresh one in hand sliding it into the receiver losing no more than half a second of firing time. While taking out one keeper with her gun, she would simultaneously glide over to another keeper and swiftly take it out with a series of motions with her omni-blade. Nothing the keepers tried would take her down, I watched as she removed her blade from the neck of a keeper and without even looking back stomped on the leg of a keeper behind her, crushing it, then swinging around and taking out the other leg with her blade and swinging her gun around and using the keeper's back to steady it as she took out another row of keepers behind it before it fell to the floor, dead. As soon as the keepers started to crowd her she'd disappear in a shimmer of light. Cloaking, she would leave the keepers running into each other twitching their heads around in an incredibly confused manner only to be torn apart mere moments later by an explosive she left behind, activating it as she de-cloaked in a new position and began opening fire again.

She was so graceful and possessed such incredible skill I was taken a little off guard. _That's my sister?_ I thought. I knew she could take care of herself but standard military training only brushes the basic combat tactics not this, she was moving and fighting like a highly skilled turian huntress. You could tell a huntress from just a regular soldier just by how they always seem move effortlessly through a battle. And I've only seen a few in action, most recently being a few years back on Omega, killing an entire squad of Batarian thugs without ever being seen, tearing them apart. She saved some couple who seemed to owe the Batarians some money, the usual Omega bullshit. I tried to track her down and invite her to my team, but she disappeared into thin air before i could catch up.

Watching Sol tear apart wave after wave of keepers without missing a beat. It was clear to me she must of have been selected for huntress training at some point when my communication dropped off shortly after I joined Shepard. She never mentioned it in the few calls we were able to make to each other, not that much was ever said. Nor did she ever mention it for that entire span of time I was on Palaven trying to prepare for the war, she only showed up in the last 2 weeks before the reapers hit and mentioned none of it, dad never told me anything about where she was either. Hell, now that I think about it, she must of been holding herself back while I was helping them escape from the city, before I made my way to Menae. Either that or she had yet to get over the shock of reapers falling out of the sky... so many just froze on the spot and were killed. Sol... It was almost as if I didn't recognize her, this wasn't who I remembered as my sister. I know she was good, but this good? Could I really have missed this much? _Damn Sol I'm impressed._ Another explosion went off as Sol re-appeared at the other end of the room she was fighting in. We were close to the stairs, which were on the far end. _Almost there Sol, just keep kicking ass for another minute._

“Damn Garrus, your sister can fight, why didn't you let me know?” Shepard huffed between breaths, running slightly ahead of me and also watching the show below. “Coulda recruited her back when we had that little collector problem. Her and Kasumi and I would be unstoppable, can't beat three infiltrators working together!” Shepard said, almost laughing.

“Doesn't leave much room for me now does it?” I huffed back “...And to be honest I had no idea she could fight like this, she never told me...”

“Guess you have a lot of catching up to do” Shepard chided. Another explosion rocking the ground sending keeper parts flying up and bouncing off the glass. We finally reached the stairs and had a few flights to throw ourselves down.

“How you holding up Sol?” I asked through the radio looking down as she killed 4 keepers with a head shots in under a second. Not even missing a beat.

“Fine, and you?” she hissed somewhat angrily back through the sound of gunfire, vaulting over a keeper and re-cloaking before taking a deep breath of air and saying “Dammit Garrus what's your problem with pissing off everything at every station you go to?”

She reappeared again at the other end of the room with both blades drawn and cleanly assassinated a group of keepers, practically dancing between them. After she took them out she did a quick tap on her omni-tool blowing up the mine she left at her previous location. In that span of time she cleared half the room, but more and more keepers were pressing through several doorways on the main floor. Don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but my sister Sol? She has a strong attachment to two things, cloaking tech and explosives. And she's a clear master at both.

“That was my last bomb Garrus get your spurs down here.” she said, glancing up at us, I caught her glare and saw the sense of urgency in her eyes, as calm as she was in her movements, I could tell from her eyes she knew she was going to be in a lot more trouble very soon.

“I thought you'd be more surprised at the keepers... this isn't exactly what you'd expect from these things” I said back. You think something like getting swarmed by those numberless bugs would warrant a few questions our way. They used to be so benign...

“After Palaven... This... well not much surprises me anymore...” she said, taking what moments she can to reply without taking away from her concentration.

“Yea... I get that.... shit Sol heads up, armoured ones incoming” I called out as I watched those armoured keepers we saw earlier start to appear, and this time they were shooting. They didn't plan on kidnapping her, and had no trouble opening fire. Sol flicked her head over in surprise at the addition of guns firing at her, but quickly restored her rhythm and went invisible again.

“Dammit” she hissed “This just couldn’t stay easy could it?” she droned over the radio.

“Since when do they shoot guns and wear armour? Dammit, I'm on my last heat sink, can't exactly win a gunfight with a knifes” she said, panic slowly creeping through her sub vocals; urging us to hurry up.

“Were almost there, just hold on” I said, and started bursting down the stairs even faster, skipping four steps at a time. “Come on, lets get down there” I urged to the others, there was no way I could watch them overwhelm her, that wasn't going to happen.

Soon the entire main floor was flooded with keepers. Sol was running out of room to move, each keeper she dropped with her blades, two more came in through the hallway doors and vents they were pouring out of. She kept glancing up at us each time she re-appeared as we were running down the stairs. Finally as we came close to the last few flights, she came in through the radio.

“Too fucking slow Garrus, sorry, but your not going to like this. Sol out” She said without emotion, then she went completely radio silent.

She De-cloaked, standing in the middle of the room, gave us one last glance as keepers began to rush towards her like a insect mosh pit, bullets bouncing off her shields. Then she did a flourish of movements on her omni-tool, and smacked both of her bracers on her armour then crouched down into a half fetal position, you could hear a high pitched ringing as she raised her arms up to her face in a blocking motion and then--

She exploded. Sending smoke and keepers everywhere and obscuring everything from view. The shock wave cleared the entire room, seemingly cutting everything in half before obscuring it all in smoke.

It happened just as we reached the bottom floor and I watched in horror as it happened, helpless.

“SOL!!!!!!” I screamed, unable to even comprehend what I just saw.

#

_2 hours earlier_

“You look like shit Garrus” Shepard said with a sidewards glance as we were moving through the hall. We followed EDI as we made our way back to the relays, since EDI was the only of the three of us who knew her way around this place she took point. To think back to when we were departing the Normandy and she offered her company simply because Shepard and I felt like exploring fully equipped for the hell of it.

And now in her simple will to experience pointless organic stimulus was now the only reason we were able to make our way anyway through this place. I shudder to think of how much worse it could have gotten if luck wasn't so much in our favour.

“Yea, well that's a hell of a story. Let's just say there's not a lot that could stop me from finding you again.” I said, smoothing out the last words in a sort of smooth and reassuring manner, or at least that's what I attempted.

But looking at myself I was a total mess. Patchwork repair over the chest piece, and a dry coat of blood over most of my armour, with a dominant blue stain in the middle from my injury. That brought raised eye brows of concern from Shepard when she first looked me over but she refrained from asking anything. But the most concerning thing --at least in my mind-- was the film of bile that coated every part of my armour. I could still feel it in some of the seals of my armour. All from that vat of.... stuff, I fell into; I'm not gonna ponder it's contents any more than I already have, retching turians isn't a pretty sight.

Despite the state of my armour, I was walking normally and my injury no longer impeded my movement. Shepard doesn't need the details on how I was able to find her, if anything I wouldn't let her know until long after were out of this place.

“Thanks for that, but you know you still owe me the full story when we get back right?” she said, almost sounding like an order. _From my commander or from my girlfriend though?_

I knew she would ask that, so much concern.

“uhhm, when we get back..” I replied.

It had been a few minutes since we last had radio contact with Sol. She mentioned some kind of party going on. We could hear the sounds of battle vibrating through the walls. Knowing my sister she's not one to 'krogan charge' into a battle, and prefers to scout out a place before becoming involved. She went through the same training I did. Though, she decided to stick around in the military instead of going to C-Sec or elsewhere like I did. She was considering retiring out of the military around the time I met Shepard who then recruited me to take down Saren. I lost most contact with my family around that point.

It had really even hit me yet how crazy it is that Sol managed to find her way here. Even back on Palaven our contact was pretty minimal except for the final weeks before the invasion reached us. But I knew that if there was anyone else that could figure out the relays like I did it was her. She was raised under the same investigative principles I was, she was just more prudent to hold stick by the rules that surround them. I never really grasped the point in following so many pointless rules. She was more able willing to work with them.

I figure that if she contacted Normandy from the med ship she booked passage into the Sol system on, that they would of informed her of the situation and she would have assisted in figuring out how to get to us.

But why haven't we heard from anyone else? You think she would have most of the crew ready to follow in behind her.

“Sol, you still there?” I called in, curious to find some answers. Surely she's not the only backup.

There was no answer. I waited another few moments, and even Shepard looked over at me as if my expression would provide some answers to the ominous silence.

“Sol.” I called again.

“Little busy not getting ripped to shreds Garrus” she quickly spat back out through the radio. As If I was just her big brother invading her personal space again.

Despite the angry tone, it was enough for me to picture the situation she must be in right now. We had been through enough times together growing up where she could be rather vague, while letting me in on the situation through something as simple as the tone of her sub vocals. It's just one of those things only I could pull off from what others would just take as a rather annoyed response from her.

“hmm, she's cloaking from something right now... just give her a moment.” I told Shepard. EDI was also listening but her interest seemed more in guiding us rather than checking in on Sol.

And just like that, a few minutes later Sol popped back into contact. I was glad our lack of communication these past three years didn't diminish our sibling ability to get details across with as few words as possible.

“Right, so where are you guys? And what's your escape plan?” she said. As if we knew.

“Were making our way to you... we think. And I thought you had a way out.” I said back.

“I figured once we found you we'd just go back through the relay.” Shepard added.

“oh, Shepard I take it? I suppose I have you to thank for my planet not completely burning... Thanks, can't _wait_ to finally meet you. And yea those those relays would be ideal if they were still around.” Sol said back.

“What did you do Sol?” I asked, that explosion. _That would probably get her going_.

“You still blaming me for everything? Your lucky I thought cloaking through the relay was a good idea, Keepers were there in force and once I slipped past them the entire room exploded, pretty sure they were still inside. I passed some other rooms and it was the same story.” Sol explained.

“Sounds like a close one” Shepard said.

“Guess that explains the solo approach?” I commented

“Yea, would of appreciated more than just me making it through the relay. I thought I was just assisting. Bet they're all back there thinking they're so damn incompetent, hah. I did show em how to do it before I went through. You think one of them would have noticed the bloody keeper trail and figured it out. Either way I hope you have other exit plans.” Sol said, sighing out that last part in her frustration at being as trapped here as we were now.

“Bloody keeper trail?” Shepard asked me, keeping her voice off the radio.

“Yea, kind of needed to borrow it's backpack, keys to the relay...” I said back. Shrugging at her while looking down at the blood still on my glove.

Shepard shook her head with a smirk, then returned to following EDI. I figured we must be getting close, to the relays, but that didn't matter we had to figure out another place to meet up and escape preferably without keepers.

“You hear that gunfire Sol?” I asked. The further we went into the structure, the louder the sounds of battle became. Perhaps EDI figured Sol would also be heading there?

“That's where I'm headed.” Sol whispered.

“That is also were we must go, there should be active relays to the Citadel the keepers were building.” EDI said to us. I guess we were already headed there. So much for me knowing my way around.

“What's useful there?” Shepard asked.

“There may be active relays there that may connect to locations within the galaxy. I have no data on what is specifically on this Citadel, but If they are destroying our exit, I see no other probable options”

“Who was that? That the 'High End Combat VI' your pilot was asking about?” Sol asked.

Shepard and I looked at each other and Shepard rolled her eyes, but neither of us answered. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for Sol to figure it out.

“EDI?” Shepard whispered as if EDI had told a secret.

“Really commander?” EDI asked, seemingly disappointed at the prospect of keeping her AI capabilities a secret. I didn't really see a point knowing Sol, but I didn't say anything.

After a moment Sol came back on through the radio. “I was on the Normandy for thirty minutes, I know it's and AI. And it wants it's bot back.”

“Her name's EDI” Shepard said. Clearly not appreciating anyone referring to EDI as 'IT'.

“Ah, yea, sorry EDI. Not exactly used to talking with AI's. The Geth didn’t arrive on Palaven until after I had left.” Sol apologized. “can't believe I'm saying that and talking about backup”. Her tone towards EDI smoothed out rather quickly. She was always good at that, adjusting to something new; at least outwardly.

“No offence taken Solana. I look forward to meeting Garru's younger sister... and returning to the connection of the Normandy, being trapped to this unit is becoming increasingly uncomfortable.” EDI said, delighted she wouldn’t have to be kept hidden.

“Garrus you know you have a lot of explaining to do once we get--- oh shit” Sol began to say than quickly cut out of the radio.

“Sol--” Shepard began to ask, but I tapped her shoulder and put a talon to my mouth.

She needed radio silence.

Several moments passed, and each moment filled with silence felt like someone adding another pound of tension into the air. I would hate it if something happened to her, I knew she could take care of herself, and that she was smart. But she's no huntress... far as I knew.

After a few minutes, Sol came back on but kept her voice to a whisper, her sub vocals vibrating above her own voice under the strain. “Get to the gunfire, can't talk anymore, keepers slaughtering each other, so many dead. Looks bad, GET HERE.” Then she went radio silent.

Once again Shepard tossed another glance my way, and her eyes gave voice to her thoughts.

We needed to get there quick. Keepers killing keepers? Was that the battle we were hearing? What the hell is going on? Is that what Sol was surprised about? What about the intelligence?

So many damn questions and all we could do was push forward a little faster. Though neither of the three of us could have guessed just how soon we would get our answers.

#

Fifteen minutes have passed since we last heard from my sister. We had made our way through countless halls, stairs, and areas with a view out into the Galaxy below. That was the first time Shepard was able to see where we were. EDI and I neglected to let her know that we weren’t even in the Galaxy anymore, and Shepard was a little annoyed we let information like this just slip by. After that little conversation we gave her more information on the Citadel EDI mentioned earlier, and EDI told us that The keepers must of finished building it, but she had no data on why keepers would attack each other.

The truth was none of us could come up with anything. The intelligence controlled all the keepers, so why would it have them kill each other? Something was up, and we'd best be aware of it as soon as possible. Far as any of us knew, keepers were altered by the reapers to work on the Citadel, and used this place to keep most of their population hidden.

“were getting close, look” EDI said as she pointed over into the room ahead.

Up ahead was a large open room. And inside there were thousands of keepers, and all of them dead. The walls were barely holding together, bullet holes and scorch marks all over them. The keepers slaughtered each other down to the last one. If any of them survived they were no longer around.

“Take a look at this” I said, turning over a keeper. It had no backpack. It had several gunshot wounds running from it's chest all the way up it's neck. But other than it's C.O.D, this keeper was free of anything, no backpack, no antenna, nothing. It had blades strapped onto it's arms and that’s it. It died killing the keeper next to it, which had a backpack and a gun, along with some armour like what we saw back when they kidnapped Shepard.

“I think I hate this things.” Shepard said. Stating it simply as if it were nothing more than preferred food, or decoration.

“Keepers without packs, killing keepers with packs” I said. These ones were dead, and didn't bother me as much as a live one would.

“EDI, you said reaper units disintegrate after a few weeks once they die right? Like the illusive man?” Shepard asked. I think she was on to something. This had looks of some kind of revolution.

“Correct, excessive alteration of genetic code reduces tissue lifespan. Once killed nanobots within reaper units begin to dissolve their host to remove evidence. If kept alive, the excessive alteration would also degenerate the host over time. They would last no more than a few centuries. In the case of the collectors it is safe to assume they were kept in cry-storage until an appropriate time in which they would be useful. Carrying large amounts of their ground units past the next cycle would be redundant, do to the guaranteed supply. which explains the lack of unidentifiable reapers.”

“Yea, that’s what I though.” Shepard said. “Keepers must have been--” she wasn’t able to finish her sentence as she was interrupted by a rapid clicking noise, a bug like clicking coming from across the room and to our left. Out, hiding around the corner of the door were two keepers, they were making a rapid clicking noise. The damn keepers were making a noises.

BAM

The first one fell to the ground, it's head mist. The other one ran off down the hall before I could take it out.

“GARRUS!” Shepard yelled, surprised and strangely upset.

“Was I not supposed to shoot it? I was just going off our plan last time.”

“That one didn’t have a pack on, it was different and it was speaking... or something. We need to go after it” she said.

“Shepard I don’t---” I wanted to protest, but I knew where I stood. It's the same as every other moment where all I could do was respect her decision and keep her safe. “--OK, let's see if they actually can talk.”

We waded through the mass of corpses, and moved into the hall. The keeper was watching out of the corner of another doorway and darted as soon as it saw us. This little _bugger_ was a lot more self aware than any other keeper I've seen. Perhaps Shepard was right; _either way if it tried anything it wont be around much longer._ The closer we got the stronger the urge to pull out my gun again became. It was almost reflexive. But Shepard had our intentions set and I had to resist the urge.

We backed the damn thing into the room, and as we entered it began it's rapid clicking again. It looked and sounded afraid as it backed into the darkest corner in the room. This definitely wasn't a normal keeper.

The three of us stood in front of the door, offering it no escape, our large forms towered over it and it quickly looked around left and right for any sort of an exit to which none existed.

It clicking sped up to a very rapid rate, a little like putting a playing card into a rotating fan.

Then it changed it's clicking, from fast to low, high pitch to low. And through the rapid clicking it began to form words. Before our unbelieving ears the keeper began to speak.

“pplleeasssee dddooonnnt kkkiiiillllll” It clicked at us.

“That is.... “ EDI began.

“Incredible” Shepard finished her sentence. We all stood a little slack jawed before this thing like it was something we've never seen before. The damn thing was making noise and speaking to us. _Seriously I thought I had seen enough crazy shit following Shepard. Talking keepers?? Can I go back to the forward battery now? I think I’m just about done._

“ppplllleeeaaasssseeeee” It clicked at us again.

“You can speak?” Shepard asked this thing.

“nnnoooooooo ppppaaaacccckkkkk... nnnnooooo ccooommmppaacccttt..... ccccaaaaannnnnn ssssppppeeeaaakkkkkk.” It clicked at us.

“Compact? What compact?” She asked. I could hardly believe what we were doing right now. We were speaking to a freaking keeper, these damn things just hours ago kidnapped Shepard and almost killed her all for some freaking construct with a million year old demented plan. And here Shepard was putting that all behind her and having a conversation with one of the damn things.

_You always seem to find new ways to impress me. The stuff you do, I don't know anyone else in the galaxy who makes the choices and does the stuff you do. I love you. But can we still kill it?_

I just stood silent behind Shepard not saying a word, I let Shepard do all the talking while I tired to bore a hole through the damn thing with my eyes.

“wwwwwweeeeee ssseeerrrrrvvveee...... fffffiiiirrrrrrsssssstttttt ttttoooooo ssseeeerrrrrrrvvvvvveeee... wwwweeeeeeee ssssssuuuuuuuurrrrrvvvvviiiiiiiiivvvvvveeeeee.”

“All those millions of years? Since the beginning? How?”

(I think you get the point of how this damn thing speaks, so I'll keep it normal from here out)

“Yes, we serve leviathan, we serve machine, we build citadel, we build relay, we maintain.”

“Why can you speak? Why don't you have a backpack”

“Pack alters. Pack kills. Pack, cant speak, kills. No pack, survive, breed, exist.”

“I don’t think I understand” Shepard said, a little confused and straining to understand it through it's unique method of communication.

“We useful to machine, keep us around, cant alter us, alter some, packs alter. Packs kill if compact broken.”

“And what does the compact impose?”

“Run Citadel, serve, no speaking, death, must supply keepers to run citadel. Supply from unaltered keepers.”

“Is that why your fighting the 'altered' keepers? Do you know whats happening?” Shepard asked. You could tell she was still incredulous at the fact that she was talking to a damn keeper but she was doing an excellent job keeping a steady voice. Meanwhile EDI was peering over Shepards' shoulder at the keeper as if it held some sort of key to fully understanding organic behaviour.

“You defy machine, you beat machine, machine destroy exits, machine kill, machine not powerful anymore. Machine cannot control us. You free us. You kill us all. We die. We live.”

“Uhhh... you'll have to run that last part by me again.” Shepard said.

“Machine keep you here, machine kill. We fight. We kill. Weaken machine. Kill machine. Help you.”

“They're fighting the altered keepers who are controlled by the intelligence. For each one they kill, the intelligence loses more control over it's surroundings.” EDI explained, understanding what this thing was telling us.

“Your killing your own kind? Your ok with that?” Shepard asked.

“You find home, you destroy machines machine. You discover reapers. Discover threat. You kill station. Kill home. Kill all reapers. Kill all keepers. We kill, we die. You kill all.”

“They know they're going to die anyways so they're fighting back in hope that you'll save them” I said, finally understanding this thing's position and the reason for the giant room full of corpses in the back.

“Why hasn't the intelligence activated the other reapers?” I asked.

“Machine trust us. Machine allow work. We alter reapers. Reapers sleep. Reapers dream. But reapers not wake. We wait for you.”

“You what?” Shepard asked. Raising an eyebrow.

“You kill reaper, you survive, you kill collectors, you survive, you kill reaper army, you survive. We deactivate reapers over year. They only dream. We help.”

“How can you know what happens if only the altered keepers go through the relay?” I asked, catching one hole in this thing's story.

“We find tool, tool has data. We observe. Rooms have terminal. Terminal connect to Citadel. We watch. We maintain. You destroy citadel, we build new. Rooms useless.”

“Guess that explains all the empty rooms, this place must of been some giant command centre. Keeping the intelligence informed about everything.” Shepard said. All three of us becoming ever more so enlightened.

“They must of had thousands of hidden QEC's in order to be able to watch the Citadel from here, impressive.” EDI added.

“I'm destroying this place, your right about that, the intelligence can't live, and according to what Garrus told me, it needs you guys in order to be mobile. Can your friends keep it here?”

“they burn with machine?”

“If they can make it out in time I would allow it. But we can't give this thing a chance to escape with it's keepers and hide for another million years. This all has to end now. You know that.”

The keeper was silent for a while. Fumbling it's hands together while in thought. Then it looked up again at Shepard and said.

“You not let keepers burn? You save keepers?”

“Not all of them, but I'll do what I can to make sure you don't go extinct, and once your free of the machine and we get back to that galaxy down there, I'll do what I can to support your transition into a recognized species of citadel Space. Who knows maybe we'll even find you guys a planet.”

The things eyes lit up from dark black, to a starry eyed dark black. I had to snuffle a laugh at the things 'expression' “Bekenstein close. Bekenstein.”

“I think we could arrange that. Do you know how would we get out of here? They blew our only exit.”

“We could not stop. But way out. Other Citadel.”

“What move it under it's own power? That would take longer than an asari lifespan” I said. The Citadel had it's own engines, usually keeping it in one spot, thats how the reapers brought it to Earth so quickly, but without relays, there was no way we would ever get it back.

“A thousand asari lifespans” Shepard added.

“Actually it would require, 4.8 billion asari lifespans” EDI finished. _Thanks EDI, I'm not waiting that long._

“Quantum Entangled swapping. Advanced, dangerous technology.”

“A quantum what?” Shepard said, big words aren’t exactly her thing.

“Harvest many suns, gather energy, place quantum stack in one spot, drain energy from one spot into other. Takes matter with it. Instant transit.”

“EDI do you get what the hell he just said?” Shepard asked.

“I think he is talking about using unknown quantum technology to teleport an entire Citadel back to the widow system with us in it.” EDI said. I don’t think she fully understands what this thing was saying.

“Citadel a relay. Need relay to widow. No other relay from dark space. Use bomb.”

“what?...”

“Bomb at Widow, quantum expansion. Bomb here, quantum reduction. Move large mass and all to Widow. Like relay. But bomb. Advanced Keeper tech”

“That’s not how relays work, not even close” Shepard blatantly pointed out.

“Keeper build relay. Relay reduce corridor of space mass. Low mass collapse space. Connects two points. Like teleport. Teleport not accurate. This more accurate to teleport. Keeper relay teleport. Matter transfer. Beam matter transfer. Like bomb.”

“Your not seriously gonna tell us your up for this are you Shepard? Strap ourselves onto some other Citadel with thousands of keepers as we blow up this place then ourselves?”

Shepard looked over at me and gave me a look that begged to figure out what in the plan I didn’t understand. “Sounds about right to me Garrus. Unless you have something better.” she said rather blatantly as if she didn't even absorb any of what this thing was suggesting.

“This is insane. Spirits protect us from our own insanity.” I said, looking up to the ceiling and dreading the idea that we were actually planning to do this. I was with her regardless though.

“You got a name keeper?” Shepard asked, ignoring my muttering.

“Keeper no name in your language.... call me..... Cabe?” it asked. As if we knew.

“Sure Cabe, and thanks for the info, tell your buddies the plan, we need to find a friend and rig this place to blow. Once the intelligence is secure try and make sure your one of the keepers on the citadel. We'll blow this place in... twelve hours... so I should go.”

“Cabe listens. Cabe goes.”

We began to file out of the door and Cabe past me and I felt I had to add in one last thing considering the change in circumstances. “Hey...err, Cabe... I'm.... sorry.... about your friend.” I had never had to apologize like this before, and apologizing to a keeper was insanity. But this thing was helping us and he deserved one from me for killing his friend without a second thought.

He looked up at me and twitched his left and right. Then finally he looked down at the ground and said. “...price of compact...” and then scurried off down the hallway and into a vent.

I looked over at Shepard and said. “I honestly don't know what you'll bring us to that will ever top this.” shaking my head.

“Oh come on Garrus, It beats C-SEC right?” she said, nudging my shoulder and doing her best to hide her bewilderment.

“Right.” I reluctantly agreed. Not that I was any more ok with any of this.

#

“Too fucking slow Garrus, sorry, but your not going to like this. Sol out” She said without emotion, then she went completely radio silent.

She de-cloaked, standing in the middle of the room, gave us one last glance as keepers began to rush towards her like a insect mosh pit, bullets bouncing off her shields. Then she did a flourish of movements on her omni-tool, and smacked both of her bracers on her armour then crouched down into a half fetal position, you could hear a high pitched ringing as she raised her arms up to her face in a blocking motion and then--

She exploded. Sending smoke and keepers everywhere and obscuring everything from view. The shock wave cleared the entire room, seemingly cutting everything in half before obscuring it all in smoke.

We had reached the bottom floor and I watched in horror as it happened, helpless.

“SOL!!!!!!” I screamed, unable to even comprehend what I just saw.

Smoke was everywhere, and we could barely see a foot in front of us, Shepard and I were coughing on all the smoke and waving our arms in front of our faces trying to clear the air. My visor tried in vain to pick up something anything beyond the smoke, and we kept tripping over pieces of keeper.

“SOL... no, oh spirits..” I couldn’t believe it, we were right there, we were so goddamn close why the hell would she do that?

“Not again..” I heard Shepard whisper in a pained voice. I didn't take the time to register the implications of that, I was almost blocked from any clear thought.

The room was empty. She was gone.

I was breathing heavy and as the smoke started to clear a voice called down to me from the floor above us.

“Told you, you wouldn't like that.”

We all looked up at a ghost, my mind reeled at the sight of my sister, right in front of my eyes. Like some of grand magician trick. But how what the hell? What just happened? Is this another damn dream?

“The hell was that Sol?” I yelled up to her, almost furious, but very glad she was alive.

She finished adjusting her bracers then cloaked. The next moment she de-cloaked and she was on our floor and walking towards us.

“Been waiting for a chance to test that in a real combat scenario. Good to see you G. Glad you still care.” She said, with a smile behind her voice.

“I never stopped...” I said, getting out of a daze. Sol stood a few feet away from me and we were staring straight at each other. Piercing our eyes into each other, communicating our thoughts through our subtle movements.

_The hell was that Sol?_

_I'm still here arn't I?_

_Always trying to get a rise out of me. Damn I forgot how irritating that was._

_Love you too. Now... to business_

and then we snapped out of our stares and acknowledged the others.

Finally she broke the silence. “You look like shit G.” She said with another laugh.

“Damn good to see you Sol. Been so damn long” I said, walking up and placing a hand on her shoulder. She stood rigid for a moment, staring back at me as if contemplating whether to toss my hand away or hit me. I knew she was annoyed at me, upset I wasn't around more often and that I had spent years on 'secret missions'. But instead, contradiction to what her subtle motions were suggesting. She moved my hand to the side and moved in for a full embrace.

She rested her head on my left shoulder and closed her eyes and hugged me tight. We held there for a moment and I returned the hug. Then she took a deep breath and pulled away. In a quick motion she looked over at Shepard. She eyed her down, gathering as much as she can from a first impression. Sol always placed a lot of value in first impressions.

Then after a moment of silence she said to Shepard “Glad to finally meet you Commander.”

“Oh, hah. It's just Shepard to you, please” Shepard was trying to hide her excitement. She's been wanting to meet my sister forever, and the show my sister just gave us impressed the hell out of her.

“What was that anyways your little trick?” I asked, referring to just a few minutes ago where I was pretty convinced I had just watched my sister die.

“Little project of mine. My version of explosive tech armour. Shaped explosive bracers, plus a pack I have on the back to clear out anything behind me. Pretty much for when your about done having all the fun.” she said, her sub vocals casually shrugging off the battle for her life she was just in. She was as good as me at outwardly acting as if a big deal was nothing worth mentioning. But you could always tell through her eyes. Her personality and her true thoughts shone through them, whenever i needed to read her I only had to look her in the eyes. She could never hide it.

“Sounds sketchy” Shepard said.

“Hah, yea I'm glad back when I built this I tested it on the armour before putting it on. If you don't lock the armour joints, and boost the shields the recoil would knock you out... or worse. It's just shape charges between the outer and inner plates.” she said, twisting her arm in front of us displaying her secret weapon. “Nothing like Molten metal and phosphorous to clear a room and get out” she said quite satisfied to have us gawking at this ingenious tactic.

She had shape charges on her forearms, and a large pack on her back, the ringing sound we heard was the warning bell she put in to let her know of impending chaos in case they decided to go off themselves on a glitch ---this happened to her while she was building it, and now she's a little wary of it happening again--- It shoots semi-solid chunks of lead to rip through anything around her then the phosphorous smokes up the room so she can cloak and get out, afterwards she has to place on new outer bracer plates on her forearms, which she keeps attached to the magnet clamp meant for a sub-machine gun.

She had probably made her way to the second floor to avoid my visor so she could watch me squirm for a few moments. Sol was like that.

“Glad to finally meet the person who possessed my brother.” Sol said, turning the attention over to Shepard. “Still think it's crazy he fell for a human, but I guess I can see why.”

“oh? And whats that?” Shepard asked, intrigued as to this specific quality.

“Not in front of G. Dont want to embarrass him, perhaps after were done here?” Sol said. T _rying_ _making me uncomfortable, great._

“I noticed that's the N7 shadow armour” Sol also said, motioning to Shepards armour.

“Is it the 400 or the 800?” she asked, eager to speak tech with another infiltrator.

“It's the saber2, only one of it's kind, alliance techs pretty much handed it to me after the war. I added a 800 generator for redundancy.” Shepard said.

“Spirits, how long can you stay cloaked?” Sol said, surprised. And a little jealous.

“Close to a minute, but it gets hot before that.” Shepard said.

“hmm. I can't push this thing past twenty seconds ” She said.

Then their conversation went on for a while from there. They started laughing and I could already tell they would have no trouble getting along. I remember a time when she may of been angry at Shepard for convincing me to run off on some harebrained secret mission like taking down Saren or the Collectors. But since the war, every one knew what they owed Shepard, and nothing could stop my sister from having deep respect for her. I could even catch hints of squealing excitement in my sisters sub-vocals to be meeting the savior of the Galaxy. She was speaking in a higher tone than normal, and I knew she only did that when talking about something she was interested in, or around someone that lit up the fire in her soul.

Next she approached EDI and after an uneasy start with speaking to an AI face to face, she mentioned how EDI's twin was looking for her, to which EDI explained that was in fact her. Then they talked a little about EDI's story, and my sister was quite interested about it, quantum blue boxes, surviving the blast that killed the reapers, thoughts on being the most powerful synthetic left in the galaxy, Hell, Sol even joked with EDI about her possible plans to lead the next invasion! This made EDI give out a nervous laugh and she quickly explained her wish to 'pass up on such a unique opportunity' then. She asked where we were exactly. We brought her to the closest window and I watched as her jaw and mandibles dropped as the light from our galaxy below bounced off her wide open eyes.

“Spirits....” She was silent for a long while, then she turned to look at me, totally recomposed and said “Gives you quite the feeling of vertigo doesn’t it?” to which I nodded my head. While enjoying the view for as long as practical, we explained why we were here in the first place, our conversation with the keeper, and pointed out the other citadel which now lay in the dark, it's arms close to each other, almost closed. We told her of the escape plan to which to my surprise she had no complaints.

“What, you got a better idea Garrus?” Sol said when I commented on her lack of surprise on the bomb part. _I know you Sol, your just trying to impress._

“So what about this intelligence thing? I assume you have plans for it? And that room with those damn monsters?” Sol asked.

“Yea, were just going to blow up the whole station once we've set the changes and made our way to the other citadel. Then the keepers will light the fuse to the bomb and we'll be in the Widow system. Or so that’s the only plan we have” Shepard said.

“Still don't think it sounds too easy Shepard?” I said. Knowing full well this wouldn't be anywhere near easy, with the massive keeper war going on around us. You could still hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions through the walls.

“We'll be fine, there's four of us.” Shepard replied. And so we took up position, Shepard and Sol up front and EDI on my right and we made our way further into the building, down to where EDI said would be an ideal location for the bomb, with which Sol more than had covered. She was elated when we told her of our plans to blow up the place. Her kind of job.

Before heading down there Sol took us back to a room she found. Inside the keepers had a nice collection of various explosives that I'm fairly certain came from the C-SEC evidence archives of the old Citadel. _Damn keepers_. We sifted through them and we each took the biggest ones we could carry, locking them into the mag locks of the gun we were using. Where as Sol was able to replenish her supply of explosives AND carry four times as much as we could, because she had installed secondary mag locks all over her armour for such an occasion. _Sol you pyro, how many hours did you spend on that armour?_

 _I had a lot of free time recently..._ she shrugged back to my look at her as she strapped on another bomb and adjusted her shields.

Once we all looked like something out of a Blasto movie, we all followed EDI down into the bowels of structure. We were finally going to blow this place up, and under the sounds of gunfire and explosions I thought about that keeper and hoped he could hold to his side of what had to be done. And hopefully well all get out of here and this crazy escape plan will work.

Blind hope brought me this far, there was no point in not trusting in that now.

We were walking down a hallway and before EDI and I were able to step onto the platform bridge we were shoved back onto the into the hall by Shepard and Sol who had immediately cloaked themselves.

Between us, and destroying this station, was a room below the platform we almost walked onto. And below that platform were thousands upon thousands of altered keepers. All of them were guarding a giant fusion core which is were we needed to be.

“Never going to be easy eh?” I whispered to Shepard.

We were going to need an army, and this was going to be one hell of a fight.

End Chapter 16


	17. The Intelligence

“Everyone ready for this?” Shepard asked in a hushed voice as we finished off our plans. As long as Cabe and his keeper buddies can keep the intelligence from escaping, we can blow this station, and make it to the other citadel and get ourselves free and clear from dark space and be finished with this thing.

“Right behind you.”

#

one deep breath in, adjust scope.

Find the target. Wait for it. There it is. Dark metal cylinder placed next to that stack, hit that and it falls onto those keepers before they even know they're under attack.

And another, in another spot. Everything is set.

“30 seconds to vacate.” I whispered through the radio. And counted the beating of my heart.

30...

25...

15...

5...

“EDI, your up” I whispered from atop my perch looking out over the platform.

“Decoy away” She whispered through the radio, and I watched as 'she' started running through the crowd of altered keepers below. This instantly infuriated them and they all started to crowd around 'her' and started to grab at her, and shoot her and bring her down, and in doing so half the room of keepers about 50 or so gathered really close together all trying to tear at 'EDI'

CLICK

I sent a round straight at the round explosive placed right above where the decoy was standing. I had to shoot through a few keepers and guess at where it was and ended up hitting it dead on. It erupted in flames and I watched the shockwave through my scope and felt it through my bones. The first few rows of keepers were incinerated, beyond them, shrapnel tore the others to pieces, while the shock wave took out some more even beyond that. In a great big sigh the crowd of keepers just fell, while any that survived the confusion started running off to the right side of the room.

CLICK

my second shot goes straight through the other bomb on the stack and it collapses, the giant cooling stack falls over, crushing over half of the fleeing keepers and cutting off the exit on the right side. It turns into utter chaos, the keepers have no idea whats going on and with no target they must be thinking the world is dropping down on them.

“Sol, Shepard, your up” I said. I watched through my visor as two heat signatures made their way from the shadows and into the room, silently taking out the closest keepers with their omni-blades.

Sol's cloak was the first to fall, after she took out half a dozen keepers. Finally with something to shoot at, some of the keepers stopped fleeing and turned to point their weapons at Sol.

One of the keepers head explodes, it's body has little time to react to the sudden loss of it's head and it just stood their for a moment before falling to the ground.

“Got your back Sol” I said, watching her quick wave of thanks through the scope before proceeding to take out more keepers. In a moment Sol shimmered in light again and was gone from view.

“EDI, the exits” I said.

“On it” She replied.

On the left side, EDI and her decoy were blocking the only two exits on the left side of the room. The keepers ---still running-- stopped and started shooting, I was about to snipe one of them but it erupted into flame from EDI's incinerate. I shot it through the head anyways, popping in a fresh heat sink.

Keepers were dropping left and right, many of them losing heads from invisible blades, others burning, and others shooting at anything even some at each other in their panic.

“My shields are down, Garrus, Sol, NOW!” EDI screamed, and I centred the sights on the group of keepers in front of her, Sol popped out of cloak for a quick second and tossed one of her bombs, just like the bottles Shepard and I shot at back on the Citadel.

CLICK

It exploded right as it was above the centre of the keepers, raining shrapnel on them and killing them instantly. I quickly took out any survivors and EDI's shield flashed outward as it recharged.

“Thanks.” EDI said as she pressed forward from the doors and moved to target the keepers not fleeing.

“No problem” I said cooly through the radio, moving my sights over to the other keepers.

“Hey Shepard, middle group, paint bomb” I called out.

A second later Shepard de-cloaks and her entire body ripples with her biotic power, she creates a massive singularity field above the middle group of keepers as i reach and grab the concussive shot. Sol and EDI start unloading onto the mass of keepers floating helplessly above the ground as I send the high powered concussive round right at the singularity warp, destabilizing it and creating a biotic explosion that ripped through the keepers.

In just a few moments following this we finished off the rest of the keepers. As everything quieted down in the room we could start to hear the sounds of battle through the wall. Stronger this time, louder.

“That sound like it's coming closer to us?” Sol asked as she looked up and around, pointing herself towards the source of the noise in an effort to pinpoint it.

“Yea, it does, let's make this quick.” Shepard said.

I made my way down to the floor to meet up with them as EDI, Shepard and Sol all began placing their remaining explosives onto the giant fusion core device that sat against the back wall of the room. Kicking a keeper corpse out of the way I said “Well, that was a hell of a lot better than old times”

“Yea, right... now come place your bombs here” Shepard said, pointing to an empty spot on the glass and metal. “This reminds me of those Christmas vids I remember seeing” Sol said, happily finding the most suitable spot for her largest explosive which she scratched on the words 'from Palaven, fuck you' onto it in turian script. “What Christmas vids have you been watching???” Shepard said, raising her head away from her own bomb placement.

“You know, lots of light, and explosion, fireworks right?”

“Thats new years”

“oh... thought they were the same holiday. Heh, as you can see i haven’t been off Palaven shooting it up with humans as much as my brother.” Sol said, laughing it off.

“That fighting seems to be coming even closer” EDI remarked, placing her last explosive onto the core.

The noise of guns and explosions was getting closer, almost as if the battle between the keepers and the altered ones was heading this way.

“We better rap this up” Shepard said, and we quickly finished off the last bombs.

“YOOOUUUU THHHIINNNNKKK YYOOUUUU CCAAANNNNN BBBEESSSSSTTT MEEEEEE”

The entire room started vibrating under it's voice, The intelligence seemed to be talking through the walls and it was talking to us. I had to look over at the others to make sure it wasn't just in my head. They were staring at the walls and the ceiling looking for the source of the sound. As it spoke the sounds of battle ceased completely which lashed at my nerves.

“Shit, it sounds pissed.” Shepard said.

“What was that? I thought you said it was in your head Garrus.” Sol said, turning her back to the bombs and looking over at all the exits to make sure they were still clear, her training preventing most of the fear from showing.

“Dammit, that keeper better do it's job, Shepard.” I said, looking over to her for the next orders.

“Right, were done here, EDI you have trigger, let's get out of here” Shepard said. EDI would be able to send a signal through her bot to activate all the bombs we rigged and set them off unison. It should be enough to destroy this station along with this dammed machine.

 

“YOOUU THHHIINNKK YYOOUUU CCAANNN EESSSAAAPPEE. NNNOOTTT WIIITTHHH OOOUUTTTT YOOOUUURRRR FFRRRIIIEEENNNDDD”

“What? The keeper?” I said out loud, but to no one in particular. Angry this thing was around again.

“AHHH GARR!!-” Sol screamed out and dropped to her knees.

“Shit, she's still vulnerable!” Shepard exclaimed in horror, Sol had her hands to her temples and she was cringing in pain.

“Errr.. Shadows.. I... you can't” She said desperately, thoughts, whispers and memories flooding her mind and creating an intense pain I was quite familiar with and was helpless to stop it. I watched her not knowing what to do, none of us did.

“We need to get her out of here!” I said, knowing the pain she was in right now.

“YYYOOOOUUURRR AAFFEEEEECCCTTTIIIOONNN FOOORR EAACCH OOTTHHER HHHAASSS DEESSTTTROOOYYEED SSSAALLLVVAATTIIIOOON. NNNOOOOWWWW YYYOOOUURRR LLOOVVEE FOOORR YOUURRRR FFRRRIEEEND WWWIILLL MMMEEEAAANNN YYYOOOUURR EEENNNDD!!!!” The intelligence screamed through the walls. And as it did we looked up to see the altered keepers moving into the room through every entrance. Within seconds we were surrounded, none of us fired a shot, and still had our main concern on Sol.

“THE PAIN CAN CEASE, RUN OR DIE TURIAN.” It screamed. And for a moment, Sol seemed to relax, The Intelligence relinquished it's hold on her. When Sol didnt move, the pain came down on her even more, she looked up at me and there were tears flooding her eyes and I saw her terror and I was helpless to stop the pain. She had no protection from it as we now had. Nothing stopped the intelligence from exploiting her inner weakness's, her regrets, and now she was feeling it's full force bearing down on her.

The things we... were forced to do to in that... dream... We built our willpower by breaking our old ones ourselves. There's nothing the intelligence could say to us that would bring any pain, that would break us down. To us, the whispers could be nothing more than just an annoyance, but to Sol, they were everything I had experienced. And seeing someone else go through it, that it being my sister. Being better protected from Indoctrination almost did nothing to stop the pain.

“Sol” I said, hand on her shoulder waiting for her to do what she had to.

“I'm sorry” Sol said, then she bolted. Running through the crowd of keepers all of which didn't bother to stop her. All their attention was still on us... and all the bombs behind us. She had to run, the pain wouldn't cease unless she did, she had to do what _it_ wanted her to do and we had a wall of keepers between us and her now. Before she disappeared from view, I watched as her stance relaxed, and that the further away from us she was, the less of a hold the Intelligence was putting on her.

Given enough time, all that pain would kill her, as it almost did to me. The brain can only handle so much sorrow and regret at one time, and being reminded of it all at once is hard for anyone to take. Choices you've made, people you've lost, the whispers would drive you down, and then you could be conditioned to follow any instruction just for some peace, just to stop the pain. It's the fastest way to get into one's mind. And If we all didn’t get out of here soon.... we have to get out of here.

At once we all knew what the intelligence was doing. It knew our plans to destroy the station along with it, and as long as Sol wasn't with us on the way out, we wouldn't blow the place. Giving it time to escape.

Escape to the Citadel and leave us in dark space with no way back to the galaxy. We'd starve and die like Vigils Protheans, and that's not how I'd like to go out.

I could only assume if it succeeded it would take it's time again –for time was no obstacle for it-- to live in the Citadel and indoctrinate enough people to sacrifice them into another reaper and start up the cycle once more. Working from the very beginning for in it's eye Shepard had failed and was now useless to her.

“Garrus, get your sister, EDI and I will hold off the keepers, when you have her get to the citadel, we'll meet you there and blow this place. Hopefully before the intelligence gets there.” Shepard said calmly. In a strangely familiar tone I hadn't heard in well over a year.

Leaving her again. Leaving her to all these keepers. Her or my sister. Go after my sister, lose Shepard. Don't go, lose Sol. It almost seemed like this situation of personal revenge against me was all part of the intelligences plan. But one thing in my mind kept my indecision to a mere second, I wanted to protest leaving Shepard, but her tone, her voice saved me from having to choose.

Shepard was giving an order. The way she spoke it out, her tone. They were orders, no longer was _my_ Shepard speaking out, this was Commander Shepard and I would never disobey her orders. I only questioned her orders once, ever. And that was because the lines were so blurred between my commander and my girlfriend that the thought she might go off and die without a single protest from me over-rided my deepest confidence in her abilities. It was as if my Shepard knew the level of indecision I would be in and pulled out the commander she knew I would always obey. And because of this she saved me from the pain of having to choose.

Her voice gave me confidence and I knew she could handle herself while I was gone. It had been so long since I've had to hear the commander, it was like an old friend that never really left. My slow slide from subordinate to boyfriend made me start to question any decision that would put her in any danger, and I suddenly felt ashamed to have ever protested against her idea of using a bomb to bring us back into the Galaxy. I mean hey, were tough to kill right? And we've done a lot more crazy things and come out on top right? And having the commander back made it a little easier to have to leave her behind. I'd see her on the Citadel, I had to trust in that.

And with just a quick nod, and my eyes saying thank you, I took off storming through the keepers. They instantly revolted my movement and began to attack at me, shooting and clawing at my armour. This only lasted a second as I watched blue energy grasp all the keepers in front of me and toss them aside. Then the next thing I knew there was blue energy moving in front of my face and I could hear a whisper through the radio as Shepard said:

“Push.”

“Oh sh--” I got launched forward through the clearing of keepers and into the hallway Sol had ran down, then I got thrown down onto my feet and Shepard collapsed the doorway behind me. Sounds of fighting beginning to emanate on the other side. I didn’t take any time to worry-- I had no time to worry. Time was not something any of us had any more.

#

“Sol... don't stop running.” I whispered through the radio. As I was making my way through the hallway, following the sounds of running on metal in the distance. I could hear the sounds of gunfire and Shepard and EDI yelling orders and acknowledgements at each other while they battled all the keepers. It made me feel really heavy to not be back there giving them a hand, but I knew they could handle themselves, and Sol needed me.

I had to stop at an intersection, there were four possible ways she could of gone, then I noticed a piece of leather up near the entrance of one of the halls. It was torn off and placed on the ground. It was a piece from Sol's armour, she was trying to give me some direction, a crumb trail.

I guess she had tried to reply to me through the radio, but the thought of even doing so would have brought her to her knees. I hated to think a lot of the source of pain could be her thoughts of me, and how I never had enough time to be there for her and mom. Mom... last I knew she was still on Sur'Kesh, I hadn't asked about her in a while knowing Sol was making regular visits and would inform me if... would just keep me informed. I hated to think I was a source of pain for Sol that the intelligence was now using to it's full advantage.

Again, another piece of leather, the other side of it at the next intersection. While following the trail I encountered several groups of the altered keepers, none of them lasted more than a few moments, and it was obvious they were all made oblivious to my sisters movements, as long as Sol was alive, the intelligence had leverage that was my only hope.

Further up ahead and past a few altered keepers fighting the 'regular ones' –in which I helped as I made my way past them-- I found a bracer of her armour. I guess the intelligence hadn't caught on to her trick yet, nor did it think to keep an eye on what I was seeing. Perhaps it could no longer read my mind, I had no idea and hoped for the latter case.

Another bracer, more keepers fighting keepers, further up ahead, a shoulder guard, a glove. I must of been a good kilometre from Shepard by now, and it dawned on me that without EDI, figuring which way was out would be a little interesting.

Then out of no where something grabbed my arm and pulled me into a dark room.

“Spirits Sol, that you?” I couldn’t see a thing an I tapped at my omni tool to turn on the thermal on my visor. It wasn't Sol.

“Vakarian, Garrus, Friend of Shepard.” It clicked at me.

“Spirits Cabe, I'm a little busy here I need to--” and before I could leave it, it grabbed my arm again.

“Not Cabe” It clicked at me, sounding rather annoyed.

“I-- what do you need... I kind of--”

“Must Hurry, Intelligence almost lost” it interrupted

“Yea... I can see that – I, uh, ahem” I coughed, and added “yea, just need to get a friend of ours, tell Cabe and his buddies to stall a little bit longer I really---”

“We can't stop our altered for longer. Save Friend, or save keepers. Lost... many...” It clicked at me.

They were losing the battle, the keepers were being overwhelmed and we didn't have enough time to save Sol and keep the keepers alive.

The intelligence knew it's forces were winning, and that's it only had to slow us down a little but longer, it was on it's way out and we were far behind.

Save Sol. Save the keepers.

The keepers who built everything for the intelligence and were responsible for all the technology, our entire civilization thrived on. Without them we would be set back years, and no one would really know how to maintain the Citadel once we got it back. We needed the keepers, we needed their help, and losing them in their uninfluenced form would be a serious blow.

Or Save Sol, my sister, an excellent fighter and my family, my blood. Her life for years of progress in rebuilding the galaxy. Black and white, she was just one turian, but this was Sol, there was more grey in this than ever before, and I couldn't just leave her could I? I had to keep going, well make it, were going to be ok, were _all_ going to be ok. Can't give up, I can't lose Sol like this, I can't lose Sol.

“Shepard, we have a problem.” I called in through the radio, knowing full well Sol would also be able to hear.

“Yea so I hear...” Shepard managed a scattered burst of replies over the sound of gunfire. “I... shit.” Shepard was silent for a moment, and I held my two fingers to my earpiece praying she wouldn't condemn my sister to die in this place, but also knowing that might be whats best for the Galaxy.

“10 minutes, Sol... Don't make me force Garrus to leave you behind... Please. And Garrus, get here alive, that’s an order.” Shepard said, and ended her transmission. I was left in a sudden veil of silence, nothing but faint sounds of battle rattling through the walls. How could it have gone this bad so fast? I had no time to think about it and I made my way out saying to the keeper “Get the rest of the keepers to the Citadel, were all getting out of here”. The keeper simply nodded it's head, tapped a little on a keeper omni—tool and started to follow me.

“SOL!” I screamed down the hall, hoping to hear anything in response.

“I...hear yo—ahh!” Sols voice pushed through the radio like the long awaited sounds of reinforcements during a long battle, it arrived with the hope that we could make it. She cut out as the pain drove her off the radio, but I caught enough to know I was near, she could hear me.

I bursted down the hall, scanning through my visors different settings in hope to find something. And within just a few minutes I had found her.

She lay on the floor like she had just collapsed, she was clutching just below her shoulders in a self embrace and she looked very weak. A strong contrast from the Sol I know, and the Sol we saw fighting the keepers. I almost thought I was seeing the Sol from her childhood, small and afraid every time Dad had to go off to work. Scared of all the mean kids who took her things. She didn't gain some backbone until about year after I did, I helped her a lot with that. People stopped messing with her very fast, and I don't think anyone would be stupid to mess with who she is now.

But here she was, just like that little sister from years ago. Hiding until someone like her big brother came to find her. But along with that look, was that turian huntress, her pride hurt from being seen in such a state. It was a mix of the two, and out of respect I didn't even bring it up that she needed help.

“Come one, Sis, were late for the shuttle.” I said softly as I replaced my weapon and picked her up. All she could manage was throw an arm over me for some support.

“Garrus” She said. I tried to tell her to relax, and not say anything but she ignored me and managed to force herself to say it.

“The pain...It's... gone.” She said. I was completely silent as it clicked in my mind.

That only meant one thing, we were out of time.

End chapter 17


	18. We Are The Darkness

 “Come on Sol we need to move faster” I said as I helped my sister along through the hall as fast as I could. I was ready to carry her all the way to the exit if I had to but she insisted she could manage. The effects of the Intelligence invading your mind is worse than any pain I could ever recall. The effects no doubt hit Sol just as hard, maybe even harder. It only took a few minutes until she couldnt take another step from the pure fatigue and had to stop and lean against a wall. It's like after a large amount of adrenaline and all you want to do is just sleep. For a moment I thought back to that time aboard the Normandy after Shepard assisted me with the whole Archangel situation. Having been on stims for days the hangover once the effects wore off was dreadful. Luckily I was able to play it cool enough to go up and see Shepard and thank her after Chakwas fixed me up. But once I hit the forward battery again I locked the door and slipped into a nice coma for the rest of the day.

Knowing the situation my sister was in I would have loved to just give my her a nice place to lie down and recover. But there was no time, the intelligence wasn't bothering with her anymore and that could only mean it must have managed it’s way to the new citadel. I took a little solace in the fact that I didn’t have to be dealing with those whispers anymore. Thanks to when we did those things in that dreamworld, breaking ourselves down a little in order to develop a resistance against the intelligences attempts at control. Like a vaccine for the mind, I figured the intelligence stopped whispering in my ear because it could already tell it would accomplish little in the amount of time it had left.

“Come on Sol, you know were out of time, we need to keep moving.” I insisted and threw her arm over my shoulder again and urged her to keep moving.

The keeper we were following explained that there could still be time as the quantum entanglement transporter bomb had a warm up period of a few minutes, and that with luck any keepers on board the citadel and perhaps even Shepard could delay it long enough for us to find a relay over to the citadel.

“Hey, keeper can you go any faster?” I asked as we followed the keeper through the outer halls of the station. It didn’t reply or even look back, it simply complied and we were able to move at faster pace. Every once in a while it would look down at its little keeper data pad it had in it's hand. I figured it was a map to this place, or it was using it to communicate with Cabe and all the other 'regular' keepers.

I can't even count how many dead keepers we passed, moving through the halls and open areas. Thousands upon thousands, especially when we passed along a bridge and caught a glimpse into an open area below. They really went all in when they decided to attack their altered versions, even though they weren’t as well armed. I guessed from the mass of corpses that one altered keeper could probably kill two or three regular ones before going down itself. Perhaps the technology that could kill them instantly could also keep them alive for a bit longer. I looked ahead at the keeper in front of me; I had no idea if it had feelings. If it did, what must it be thinking seeing all of it's own kind slaughtered. I even felt a little worried about Cabe. But why? It's a keeper; all it did was give us a name, a random name most likely. It was uncomfortable thinking how once you discover that the keepers actually have/had their own civilization and they're not all looking to kill you you begin to value each of them to a point. You see them as another race, and not some enigmatic monsters who recently tried to kill you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I hope enough of them made it to the new Citadel for their... civilization to be saved.. or freed rather.

“Hey. Wait.” A voice called out.

I stopped dead in my tracks, the keeper stopped as well it didn’t seem to understand why we suddenly stopped following.

“mmm, mom?” Sol grumbled out, still not fully recovered and using me for support.

I turned around and there it was, the same figure of light I saw before but this time it wasn't Shepard, it was our mother.

“Sol, you need rest” It said, it's voice eerily identical my mothers. My blood curled. How dare it try this, did it really think this was going to work?

“That’s not her Sol, lets move” I said, to which Sol reluctantly grunted in agreement, taking my word for it.

“Garrus...” It said, moving in front of us now and walking backwards as I began to move again. It couldn't attack me with its tricks from the inside so it was trying it from the outside.

“I'm not listening to anything you have to say, were getting out of here and there’s nothing left you could do, all your keepers are dead” I said angrily, part of my mind reeling at me ever yelling at my mother, the other part furious.

“You haven't visited me... I could be dead for all you know, on Sur'Kesh. You left me to those.... what were they called? I forget”

“ I didn’t aband—!” I sighed as I caught myself “You will be dead soon, and... spirits what do you think your even accomplishing here?” I exclaimed, honestly at a loss at why ‘The Intelligence' would think this would help it's cause in any way. I wasn't even slowing down for it.

“Garrus, hold up there's something wrong, just stay where you are and we'll come to you” Shepard said through the walls.

“Not working” I replied right back to it.

Then the figure changed into other people, my team from Omega, my dad, even Sol --- who was right beside me the whole time and was trying to ignore the figures that were shifting in front of us--- nothing it did slowed us at all, nothing it could say would make me stop.

Then it shifted into this kid, this little human child that giggled at my annoyance to its presence. Then it began to take me a little more seriously, the kid was floating along the floor rather than walking on it.

“The Citadel will be gone before you get to a relay” it said in an angry little child voice.

“I take it Shepard is slowing things down for you? Your probably thinking 'If I just had a pair of legs rather than relying on enslaving everything around me!' “ I said in a high pitched sarcastic voice, trying to piss it off so it would just give up and give me some peace.

“Can't you just for a moment try and see past your temporary affection for Shepard? Ithink with the continuity of the Galaxy in mind, you only think of your small lifespan which pales in comparison to the millions of lives I must protect.” The kid spoke but it had a really old feel about it, like when you looked at it you felt a hell of a lot younger than it. That only served to make me dislike this thing even more.

“Right ruthless calculus right? Destroy all advanced civilization capable of wiping the galaxy clean of life so simpler organics can evolve before you move on to them?” I said.

“You know the logic is sound, you've seen what I have seen for millions of years since my creation. The reapers.... were not my first solution to the violence between organics and synthetics.”

“Right, you just eventually gave up on all the more peaceful options... Have you ever considered all that Shepard has accomplished during the war? That's more than you've ever been able to do.” I spat back at it, incredulous that it could stick to its beliefs after all Shepard had accomplished.

“Can you honestly believe any of her accomplishments will ever survive the effects of time? Thousands of years from now no one will remember, no one will care. Time erases all. I have ended the galaxies greatest wars, and new ones would always take up their place, the reapers became the only solution.”

“You were build to protect everyone from each other and instead you killed, you stopped protecting and you simply started preserving. Don’t expect me to ever see anything that black and white.”

“Things change... time... brings new perspectives.... if you could exist as long as I have you would come to agree with me.... I bring light to the darkness of chaos. I light the way to order.”

“Light?! You bring darkness!” I yelled at it “I... spirits it doesn't even matter! How long you live, peace isn't order it's not. You think you solve the problem of organics and synthetics by bringing order? Life is chaos, and peace simply means less people are dying each day, chaos is part of life and you've been alive too long. You've lost sight of what matters.”

“And you have yet to look past your cycle... without me all will perish in time. Darkness will prevail, the galaxy will fall silent under the hands of its inhabitants uncontrollable violence. The Chaos you deem 'part of life' “

We entered a room with several relays, they were still intact and the keeper moved over to a console and began tapping away at it trying to re-activate them.

“If you think you bring light with all that you've done I prefer to live without. Your idea of a solution may of worked millions of years ago, but now your outdated. I believe in Shepard and she could accomplish more in ‘our short lifespan’ than you ever accomplished in all this damn time you had.”

“You will bring darkness, your kind.... in time”

“We are the darkness to you as far as I'm concerned, lets go Sol, you first.”

And with a flash Sol went through the relay, and the keeper followed behind her. And right before I stepped through the kid faded away and with a flash I was in a dark underbelly like that of the old Citadel.

#

“You alright Sol?” I asked as I scanned my new surroundings, the place was almost identical to the old Citadel, which meant finding a way out should be fairly straightforward.

“Mmm better, Should be able to walk on my own now… lets just find a nice view so I can watch that place burn.” Sol said, she really did seem to be doing better now. Well enough that she was checking her weapons and looking more alert. The keeper we were following disappeared; I guess he figured that now we were on the Citadel that there was no reason for us to be guided around anywhere.

The station was quiet, not even a hum could be heard, aside from our own noise making this place seemed even more dead than its destroyed counterpart. Shepard and the rest of the keepers had to be around here somewhere, and so was the Intelligence and however many of his keepers he had left.

As we made our way through the hall looking for a way out of the tunnels everything remained silent. The intelligence didn't ‘follow’ us through the relay. Maybe it was trying to find a spot in the Citadel to hide and just wait a couple centuries. Either way I knew it had to be on here somewhere, and with the keepers on our side we should be able to find it... eventually. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable handing a new Citadel back to the council and placing a galactic government right next to the thing that was responsible for the reapers erasing civilization every 50,000 years for who knows exactly how many years. Millions.

Sol and I found our way through an exit and emerged out of a side hatch that lead directly into this Citadels presidium. It was almost like stepping into a time machine. Everything was as I remember as if I had been with C-sec on this Citadel and not the other. If you can give the keepers credit for something it's their ability to be exact. In front of us there was the lake and the keepers had even turned on the fountains and they were making a splashing sound that gave the entire area an eerily peaceful feel.

“Shepard, can you hear me?” I asked through the radio. The radio was nothing but static until we were able to get out of the keeper tunnels.

“Hey look a keeper” Sol said pointing over to a familiar looking keeper over on the other side of the lake. My visor zoomed in and it was wearing something black and red.

It was Shepard's helmet.

“Shepard’s friend. Vakarian. Good to see you. Shepard. Help” Cabe said, his clicking hard to understand through a radio.

“How did that thing get Shepard’s Helmet?” Sol asked, shading her eyes and trying to see across the lake. I gave her my visor which she snapped out of my hand and placed it on, looking over at Cabe.

“He some kind of keeper president?” Sol asked, noting his other pieces of armour he was now wearing. It almost looked symbolic. Do keepers even care about that stuff?

“What did you mean by Shepard help?” I replied back to him, worry re-surfacing, hoping it was in a different context.

“Intelligence.” It replied back. “Meet at Shepard home. Go to Tower.”

Then it took off and disappeared through a hidden door it activated out of the wall.

“Wait-- what?” I tried calling back in vain, Cabe was gone again. Stupid bug.

“Come on lets head up” I said to Sol, heading to the closest elevator.

“Her apartment? Why there?” She asked back, following close behind me.

“I guess we'll find out.... how are you holding up?” I asked.

“I'm alive and shits about to explode, that enough for me.” She replied in a rather blunt way.

# -- meanwhile in the elevator---

“So... hows dad?” I asked

“Busy. Primarch has him running around a lot, you know with our current leadership situation still sucking.”

“Yea, I've seen the charts” I replied back.

....

“So keepers huh?” Sol said.

“Don't want to talk about that.” I replied.

...

“Hey you see the latest Blasto?” Sol asked.

“It sucked” we both said.

#

Finally the elevator opened up and we were on the sunset strip, one thing I noticed about this Citadel is it was missing a lot of 'our cycles' advertisements. No Asari head products or robe sales, no Salarian beatification products, not even turian wax –don't ask--. Everything was clean, bare.

We passed by large empty rooms, the casino, arcade, everything was empty. There would be a lot of work to do still once we got this place back to the widow system. But once finished the Citadel would do a lot to get an economy jump started and trading to increase.

Up ahead two figures were waving down to us from an apartment window. With a great sigh of relief and a boost in morale we took the elevator up to meet them.

“Look! It's just like the old one, minus all the decor.” Shepard exclaimed. Pointing around to the replica of her old room.

“Good to see you made it out ok” I said, walking up and shaking her hand, thining a hug would probably be a bit much.

The four of us exchanged greetings, and Shepard and EDI gave Sol a hug and told her they were glad she was ok, then after all that was finished we all just kind of sat in silence.

“Cabe told us to wait here for you two, so what now?” Shepard said.

“Fireworks, let's head up to the Citadel tower, I've always wanted to go there.” Sol said as she lead the way out.

#

“So you guys didn't find the intelligence? We thought it made it onto the Citadel.” Sol asked as we walked through the presidium on our way to the tower elevator.

“Yea, we met up with that keeper again, Cabe, and he told us all surviving keepers are mining the place for it. I gave it my helmet so we could keep in touch” Shepard said. Well I guess that explains that.

“If you trust him Commander I'm right behind you.” I said, still feeling a little uneasy about trusting Cabe.

“You think we'd be a little more cautious about working with a species that's been under the influence of this thing for so long, what if Cabe is all part of the intelligence's plan?” Sol pointed out, voicing the same doubts I was thinking.

“We don't” Shepard replied.

“Just relying on peoples good word Commander?” Sol asked.

“It's gotten me this far.” Shepard shrugged back.

“There is the elevator” EDI said, and we all piled on and Shepard hit the button.

# -- meanwhile in the elevator--

“So Commander, tell me, you were the first to hit on Garrus right?” Sol asked.

“whaa--?” I began before Shepard interrupted me.

“Heh yea, I was... good times” Shepard said.

“Figures, Garrus is never the first to make the moves.” Sol laughed to herself.

“I'm standing right here.” I said. Unamused.

“Just like you were at that dance the year before you left for C-sec. If it weren't for me you wouldn't have walked out with that girl you liked.”

“Lets not do this now Sol.” I said.

“Hey she liked you too, and from what she told me it worked out.” Sol said with grin.

“I could totally see that” Shepard said.

“Spirits help me” I said as I shook my head.

# --

“So this is what it looks like up here.” Sol asked as we stepped out of the elevator and into the citadel tower.

“There used to be plants, but everything is the same otherwise” I said.

We walked up through the chamber past all the empty gardens and quiet walls. I couldn't even remember a time I had walked through here with no people in it. While it's not the same Citadel, the keepers have a knack for accuracy, despite the lack of plants it was almost as if the Citadel was never destroyed. I wonder how many times they had to rebuild this station....

We climbed the stairs up to the platform and I tensed my knuckles at what I saw.

Not this thing again.

The child stood in three forms in front of us and Cabe was at the end of the bridge, apparently just finishing up a conversation with it.

“Whats going on here?” Shepard called out, Cabe turning to look at us, his head twitched slightly and he continued to stare at us until we got closer.

“Welcome.” The intelligence said through it's three forms all at the same time. The kid standing in the middle, some other alien to it's left, and our --Sol and I's-- mother to the right. Along with their three voices there was a distinct boom of a deeper and heavier voice behind theirs. When it spoke it reverberated through your bones and you felt it's presence through the walls.

“Are you ready to depart?” Cabe asked, opening up the Citadel control panel

“Not until we blow up that station… not going to enlighten us here?” Shepard asked, warily glancing over to the intelligences three forms.

“Yes, we shall. … Opening the arms now.” Cabe said, as if it didn't even detect a hint of our suspicion of its conversation with the intelligence.

“Shepard.” the intelligence boomed as the Citadel arms opened out in front of us giving us for the first time a good look at the station that gave us so much damn trouble.

“The keepers were tools of the leviathan long before I, and in so being they are invaluable to the continuation of life throughout the galaxy. As per our original agreement I am bound to guarantee their existence.” It said, ever so slightly shaking the ground.

As the arms opened the grand station blocked all stars from view, and as the arms kept opening there were no stars to be seen, the station was so massive it was blocking them out.

“Our home has reached it's end, your presence within it confirms it Shepard. It must be destroyed, as you planned. Regardless of our interference or were we to oppose you. You would destroy it anyways, ” Cabe said. It’s clicking much faster and smoother allowing it to form more complete sentences.

“Wait we agreed to blow it up, but now the intelligence isn’t on it anymore. Why would you agree to blow it up now? And how could you tell us you want to kill the intelligence and then have a conversation with it.” Shepard asked, her voice ever so showing the signs of mistrust towards Cabe.

“Would explain why it wanted us to meet at your apartment first, gives it time to talk in private.” Sol pointed out.

“The intelligence can no longer guarantee our safety. It used our own to try and kill us, it nearly did. It also had the ability to activate the Q-E-T-B, thanks to my intervention, you were given enough time to make it here Vakarian. I am on your… side.”

The arms were fully open now, and the station before us dwarfed the Citadel. It took uphalf of the sky in front of us and if there was no light bouncing off it's edges you could easily mistake it for a black whole.

“Your speaking a quite clearly now.” EDI said, squinting down at Cabe.

“Keepers learn fast. Packs on altered keepers inhibit many of our traits, make us more evolutionarily docile than we naturally are.”

“Anyways EDI... You realize Cabe that speaking to the thing that has tried to kill us for the last 12 hours like it's an old friend makes me more than a little suspicious.” Shepard pointed out. Getting to the detail I was still stuck on.

Cabe fumbled around with his hands for a second, looking down before looking up again and saying. “It… is still valuable…”

“You have got to be kidding me” I began, but Shepard waved her hand. When she put it to her side again I caught her clenching her fists. It was taking a lot just to hear Cabe out and not simply shoot him.

“You have one minute Cabe, then I’m still pretty convinced were gonna blow it up.” Shepard said.

“You threatened the continuation of life in this galaxy by your actions. Your shortsighted views have destroyed solutions millions of years in the making. The keepers know this. They know my importance as they have seen time pass as I have. They are not fully convinced you provide a longterm solution. Most of my hardware is hidden on their station. Only core processes were able to be moved to the new citadel. My loss would be a heavy blow to the keepers and their own struggle. I have reminded them of this” The intelligence said.

EDI’s eyes widened at this new information. “The Intelligence is not entirely mobile. I was curious how a construct designed to use others could ever be mobile. By my own calculations it is only necessary to make the most essential components part of a mobile platform. Such as myself. We destroy the station, we likely destroy most of the intelligence. It’s indoctrination ability would be reduced to the effectiveness of years. Long enough for us to discover it’s location.”

“I started with only my thoughts. I can do so again” Tthe intelligence said.

It wanted to bargain. The intelligence was making it's moves and playing its cards and now it thought it's best option was to convince the keepers of their error in taking our side. It knew I it could turn the keepers against us, we would have to kill them all, or they would kill us. And without the keepers, well… no one could really run a station of this size without them.

No

There was no way the keepers could change sides now, not when we were so close. Cabe’s obviously smart, and he would know switching sides at this point would spell doom for the rest of the keepers. People opposing Shepard have a nasty habit of dying. Cabe must know this to be true, he knows she killed the reapers.

The intelligence must still think it could win.

But it failed, and has been failing over and over again. Preventing chaos-- it creates small moments of chaos in order to have long moments of peace and to it that is success in itself until a more lasting peace could be achieved.

It tried to herd Shepard into choosing synthesis and in so doing create that final solution that it had been planning for millions of years. And it failed, she blew it all up and killed the reapers and fought to stay alive. The fact that she did survive after all that was just our first bit of good luck in a long time.

It tried to force her into it's synthesis machine after kidnapping her and it failed. It tried to tear me apart through my own mind and prevent me from saving Shepard and it failed there too. It even tried to trap me on its station by forcing Sol to run away and buy itself some time, and again. Failure.

“The intelligence speaks the truth Shepard. It is a construct beyond the capability of harbinger itself. It takes up a half of the station you see before you. It lives in the walls, rooms with no doors, it is the… leviathans greatest creation. Do you truly think it is worthwhile to destroy it? We decide it’s fate, it could help us, as the reapers could have helped if you had not destroyed them. The intelligence had stored the collective knowledge of millions of years of civilizations within itself.

It is the intelligence. Do you truly think something like that should be destroyed? Shepard. We could make a deal with it, control it.” Cabe said.

Cabe was watching us intently waiting for us to say something. All three forms of the intelligence stared us down waiting for us to see Cabes side. See the intelligence’s value. Cabe knew it’s value and it thought through all the variables. Its entire species was almost destroyed by this thing and it was still willing to keep it around. Cabe was clearly reluctant to let something as grand as the intelligence and all it’s knowledge just die. It was willing to make a deal and trust it, but ti left the decision to us. It watched and waited.

It only took a glance over at the others. Sol had her arms crossed and she seemed unimpressed, EDI was toying with the omni-cap on the detonator for the bombs, itching to hit the switch, and then Shepard's expression gave me an answer be she had to voice anything.

Nope. no deal.

“Shepard?” I said.

“I'll do think were better off without it or all that information Cabe, EDI” Shepard said in turn to EDI who flicked open the detonator cover.

“Ready” EDI said as she turned it on was ready to press it, but then decided to raise it it Sol, who gladly slammed down on the switch and saying “Boom you fucking bastard”.

The station in front of us turned red hot then he entire middle exploded, the intelligence's figures faded away as the station erupted. I glanced over to Sols look of awe, the explosions reflecting off her eyes as she watched intensely at every new blast from the crumbling station. Cabe didn’t move an inch, but he too was watching the show. Every damn keeper on the Citadel must have been looking up, watching as their home, their prison for millions of years lit up dark space. As chunks started to fly our way Cabe closed up the arms and you could hear chunks bouncing off the outer shell moments later. Once the noise died down and the explosions faded –which went on for well over a minute-- we all just kind of stood there, internally ecstatic.

Now that the station was gone the the only thing left was to find the rest of the intelligence and get the citadel back into the widow nebula.

“We should be able to locate and handle any altered keepers hidden on the station, and we shall assist in searching for the intelligence as well… Shame.” Cabe said as it walked away back down into the halls.

“Shame?” Shepard asked as it passed by us.

“Not often does our technology not work. We have survived this long because of that.” It paused it's speech for a moment while it continued to walk. Then it said

“Brace for transport.”

A second later another explosion was heard and the walls faded away and darkness engulfed our view.

For a moment, there was nothing but sound, the sound of each other in the darkness. There was no longer a sense of sight or touch and for a few moments as it all happened.

We were part of the darkness.


	19. Bringing Back Home Again

Once it faded away and everything came back into view it felt like we had all just been spun around till we were dizzy. The walls retook their shape and light returned to normal and we were all still standing there at the edge of the platform of the council chambers. Shepard went up and hit the button again to open up the arms, and as they did the brilliant light from the Widow Nebula welcomed us home.

The damn keeper thing actually worked.

After a moment Sol let out a laugh and we all joined in and began laughing at all the light, taking in it's beauty.

The Widow Nebula, we were back in the damn galaxy and none of us could be any happier at this moment.

We were alive.

Shepard started giving everyone hugs and we all shook hands and hugged and then Shepard walked up after hugging EDI and Sol and grabbed my head and gave me a big kiss. Being the romantic strategist I am….I was totally caught off guard by it. I caught Sol out of the corner of my eye crossing her arms and giving a slightly approving grin. I bent down and hurled Shepard up into my arms as she yelped in protest. Then I started to walk back to the elevator as Shepard laughed and tried to get me to put her down. Sol and EDI followed and I heard them talking in the behind us.

“So... EDI... Excited to get back together with yourself?” Sol asked.

“It will be most interesting.” EDI said.

“You know what happens when you make contact again? Wont 'you' be gone?” Sol asked

“I'll have to die when the other EDI takes control.”

“Oh... Spirits, I'm sorry” Sol said, a little surprised at the bluntness.

“That was a joke. I have been in contact with ‘myself’ since we returned, there is a notable difference in the evolution of my key processes between my two platforms. I have already recompiled and amalgamated the changes into a single core. There is no difference between my shipboard hardware or my mobile platform.” EDI said.

“That didn’t take long” Sol said, impressed.

“I pride myself in efficiency” EDI replied with a smile.

“Wouldn’t the Normandy still be in the Sol system? Whats the range on your… platform?” Sol asked.

“As long as I am within tightbeam range I can communicate with the Normandy with minimal lag, luckily there are operational comm buoys from the restoration efforts that connect to the Sol system.” EDI explained.

EDI told us the Normandy was already informed and that they were heading over from the Sol system. They would be here in a half hour, long enough for us to walk to the old docking bay.

We passed by a few keepers on the way, they had no backpacks on and when we passed them they stopped and looked up at Shepard and each of us. Their eyes had a look of deep appreciation. They only paused for a short while before hurrying off again. All we could do was chuckle and feel a little uneasy at the fact of keepers that were aware of their surroundings.

Going to be a hell of a thing for everyone who comes to the Citadel.

#

We arrived at D24 10 minutes before the Normandy came into view, and so we all just took a seat on the dock and enjoyed the view. The sparkling purple dust of the Widow Nebula was shining brighter than I could ever recall and it looked brilliant. In fact I couldn’t even remember a time where I allowed myself to just stop and enjoy the view. We all just sat there in relative silence. We were back inside the galaxy and it was a damn good feeling.

“The Normandy just entered the system, look there” she said as she pointed out and to the left.

The shining silver and black ship came soaring in, —beyond legal docking speeds— and joker came crackling in on the radio.

“Holy shit I— what the shit????” he exclaimed.

“EDI told everyone the news, but damn I didn’t really buy it! Shit, be down in a minute.” He said, almost speechless at the sight of a brand new Citadel.

As the Normandy passed through the kinetic barriers the screaming engines drowned out the silence, there was a keeper on the docking control booth and it extended the platform towards the Normandy airlock. As soon as the Normandy stopped moving and the engines cut to idle Joker came walking out of the air lock. He kept looking around and his jaw was dropped. He stopped in front of us just as some other crew members began to exit the Normandy to greet it.

“I.. Shit Shepard the council better believe you on this one… you know I don't think they have medals for.. You know, giving them a brand new citadel!” He exclaimed.

Joker looked up to the docking booth and saw the keeper, then he looked back at us and asked “Yea, so how the hell did you go from getting kidnapped by keepers in the Sol system to building a brand new citadel??” he asked.

“Thats a long story…” Shepard said, promising to explain the whole thing later on.

The others from the Normandy had arrived and all the greetings began. The handshakes, the hugs, everyone eagerly asking for details. Tali and Liara quickly noticed my sister and joined her in conversation. Turns out they were ready to follow her through the relay in full gear along with Vega and Kaiden. They each had their own keeper packs they… salvaged and by the time they moved through the relay, nothing happened. They were saying how they were pretty frantic after that point and they kept repeating to Sol how glad they were that she was ok and that we were all ok.

“Wow Garrus, you look like shit, what the hell happened?” was a question that was directed at me more than once. My armor still had that ugly tear in it, and there was still a more than healthy coating of dried keeper blood and some of my own. The armor had more than a few dents in it and my omni-tool was beeping red for critical suit errors. On top of that I could still feel the knot in my chest from the shotty field medic job, Chakwas isn’t going to be happy when I see her about that.

“Woah keepers!” one of the servicemen called out and we all turned around. Shepard had to calm everyone with a gun down as they approached, Shepard gestured it was ok to come near and they all obliged. Many wanted to come just to see Shepard, those that could speak well enough for the translators to pick up did and they all offered her their thanks. Many just simply wanted to shake her hands, some even came and shook my hand, others seemed a little too scared off all the keeper blood still caked on me.

The keepers dispersed into the group and surrounded everyone, clicking, the ones that could manage were forced to translate best they could for all their friends.

It was quite the scene.

EDI was having a time with all the keepers examining her platform, others moving up to look at the Normandy. It seems the normal keepers have a knack for engineering, and they were marvelling at the first non-keeper tech they’ve ever laid their eyes upon.

Eventually we were ushered back into the Citadel, the keepers wanted to follow but Shepard didn’t think that was a good Idea. The keepers seemed really disappointed but Shepard promised that the next time the Normandy is docked for more than a few days at the citadel the Normandy was theirs to explore. Under supervision of course. I told Shepard to remind me to lock the controls in the forward battery if they ever do visit, didn't want them screwing any of my hard work up.

The Normandy was a stirring with the excited crew members and more than a few suggesting I visit Chakwas.

It was more than a few hours until things calmed down, and I’d been avoiding it long enough, it was time to visit Chakwas about my wounds.

#

“Garrus! This is extensive damage! You should have seen me as soon as you returned to the ship!” Chakwas exclaimed as she examined my rather gruesome chest wound. My chest armor was tossed back on my work table in the forward battery and I sat on the medial table as Chakwas removed the stitches from my chest.

“These stitches have been expired for a while, the disinfectant did nothing, and don’t get me started on the poor application of medi-gel, do you know how close you were to drowning in the damn stuff?” Chakwas droned on and I grimaced as she removed the last of the stitches. When the final one came loose I gasped as my lung collapsed, the pain was uncomfortable even under the anaesthetic, and Chakwas quickly gave me a shot in the arm. A stim that improves lungs oxygen efficiency, she worked quickly and I held my head up staring at the ceiling trying to think of something else. She put some paste on it and sealed it with a medical torch. The whole thing took 20 minutes and all that was left was a fresh scar. You know, a pretty one the ladies would like, not one that would make a krogan cry.

Sorry, bad humour. Anyways, Chakwas offered to fix it up with the dermal regenerator but I refused, set to go, I put a fresh shirt back on and went about the ship. Vega caught me first and demanded the whole story, in detail, with a few drinks in the observation deck.

I agreed and it wasn’t long into the story that EDI had let slip about it through the comm and soon everyone was listening to this old turians story from the initial keeper attack all the way to blowing up the station and meeting up with the Normandy telling the story all while holding some nice turian brandy.

It was damn good to be back.

Late that night Shepard finally came into her quarters. Apparently after she finished her mandetory checkup with Chakwas she was mostly stuck in the war room and the QEC debriefing the council and Hackett. She told me how she had to repeat herself more than once when she said we had a new Citadel. She told me I would be busy the next few days with debriefings and reports considering my involvment in the whole situation. EDI cam on the comm and offered to compile a report based off the story I told in the observation room, I gladly accepted, but had her forward it to my console so I could check it over before submitting it to anyone.

“Chakwas told me of your injury while I was there. How did you get something like that again?” Shepard asked as she prepared to hit the sack.

“Watching your back, thats how. Hmm, besides you probably wouldnt believe the full story.” I said, getting myself comfortable.

“You told the crew, it’s all the crew is gossipping about, you know how much blood you had on your armor?” She asked, impressed.

“I have an Idea. Bet it made me look badass. Along with some fresh scars for you” I said, turning to face her.

“Oh, totally. I’m sure they’ll make a vid about it one day, speaking of which you know you still owe me the full story.” She said as we lay in bed facing each other. Our gaze of simple appreciation that we were still both here to enjoy each others company.

“Mm, later. Over a romantic dinner… I’ll think of something.” I said, sounding as suave as I could.

Before we fell asleep, EDI reported that ships were finally coming in through the widow relay. By morning, relay traffic had increased by 4000%

#

The Normandy was docked at The citadel for days, and so we all had a perfect view of the pandemonium that was the massive influx of people coming into the system. There wasn’t enough C-sec they could scrounge up fast enough to handle traffic flow, so they called in warships to act as traffic control and the military to keep guard over the whole place. There was fear that criminal groups would burrow themselves into the new ecosystem and people knew it would take months to get fully organized. Thousands of people came in bringing all matter of things. Within the first day news of the intelligent keepers hit working vids on every home world and Shepard even received mail from Aria titled “This has to be BS”. Though it took a while for Shepard to even find that message because her inbox was flooded with messages from old friends and people she had never even met. She even commented on how she mus have received a message from every visitor to the new citadel expressing their thanks.

End of the second day we were notified that a salarian designer had refurbished Shepard's apartment and he insisted she evaluate it. We went to see it and it was almost identical to the first place, though we spotted more than one dalatrass bust hidden among the books of the study. I took the rest of that night to scan around for anything suspicious, but all I found was a data pad on the bar table.

“Shepard, you should come see this.” I called out, Shepard came down to meet me and I showed her what was on the Datapad. It was our group photo from the party on the old Citadel. Apparently it was a gift from one of the salvage techs, who found it among the wreckage. A few of the other files on it were un-recoverable but the one picture that mattered was just as I remember.

The fourth day was our second last day docked on the Citadel before Shepard was assigned a new mission, something I’ll give more detail later on. Liara called Shepard and I down to her quarters and she showed us a rather entertaining video.

“I believe this is your friend Cabe? He’s made quite a presence of himself over the last few days.” She said as she started the vid.

“The mass effect relays are not portals! Our top Asari scientists have been studying them for generations and there has been no evidence to support your claims.” This asari was arguing with Cabe, who seemed unmoved by the situation.

“Relays Keeper technology. Relays create mass null zone, this collapses a section of space between two points, reducing transit distance between the two points over great distances.”

“That's not possible. All our data indicates that the mass free space allows for beyond FTL travel, no ‘collapsing of space’ occurs.” the Asari declared back, rather indignant.

“Asari do not posses technology great enough to measure distances while in the null zones, compared to the actual distances. Conclusions based on intentional and misleading plans built into every relay, to slow down the time it would take each cycle to master our technologies. And allowing the reapers to move in before unknown relays and paths into other parts of the galaxy are created by the cycle. This almost was an issue with the Protheans.” Cabe stated.

“Ugh!” The asari threw her hand up into the air and walked away.

"It seems keeping the keepers around will teach us a lot.” Liara said. “You made the right call to save as many as you did.”

“I’m just not sure if I could top this.” Shepard replied.

“I think destroying an advanced construct invasion force and surviving is the more impressive” Liara stated matter-of-factly.

“Yea, well…” Shepard shrugged.

“Though don't understate the importance of the citadel. We’ve lacked a middle ground fro trading and galactic economy since the end of the war. Having the citadel back means wonders for all our home worlds. I may live another 900 years and never meet anyone that pulls off what you guys pull off.” Liara claimed, smiling at all the information in front of her talking about the citadel.

Hope.

The Citadel did a lot to restore that feeling. Much like how people sought the citadel to forget about the war. It’s something that’s not as obvious while working around the ruined cities and poisoned lakes of our home worlds. While it's not as bad back on Palaven as it was right after the war; there is still enough around to remind you it's nowhere near how it used to be. The tallest building on the Palaven is only 20 stories now. It used to be 3.6 KM tall.

And as people worked with keepers to bring the citadel back to how it was representatives of all races came in to open up their embassies and galactic politics were full swing once more. Amnesty was given to all, krogan and quarian, even batarian and vorcha. Though most vorcha and batarians clung to space around omega, some came to represent the few hundred of their people living within citadel space. We were told talks of re-activating the geth were planned, as many petitioned their invaluable help in fighting the reapers, and countless people were more easily able to share stories about ‘that one time a geth juggernaut drop squad totally saved their scaly asses’ EDI and Tali were particularly excited about this, and they were invited to have a say, even EDI. The fact that she was an unshackled AI was hardly a secret to anyone important and in the know.

On the last day we were docked on the citadel, Hackett called in with a mission, and we packed up in supplies, said our goodbyes to non crew and set off. Sol being the newest crew member; after what we saw on back on the station, Shepard saying yes when Sol asked to join was a no brainer.

We were up against a growing concern of Hacketts, some group he thinks may be ex-cerberus trying to start fresh with enough money to pay all the mercs that intel says is keeping them safe. And so we checked our weapons, I calibrated the big guns, I fixed up my gear until it was good as new, and Sol settled in. As I fell asleep to the subtle hum of the Normandy's engines I hummed contently thinking about the mission ahead and how it felt once again, just like old times.

G.


End file.
